Prognostic value of natural killer cell activity for patients with HER2 + advanced gastric cancer treated with first-line fluoropyrimidine–platinum doublet plus trastuzumab

• Published in: Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Immunotherapy, 2022-04, Vol.71 (4), p.829-838
• Main Authors: Cho, Hyungwoo, Ryu, Min-Hee, Lee, Hyung Eun, Kim, Hyung-Don, Kang, Yoon-Koo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - therapeutic use; Cancer Research; Clinical outcomes; ErbB-2 protein; Female; Gastric cancer; Humans; Immunology; Killer Cells, Natural - metabolism; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Monoclonal antibodies; Multivariate analysis; Mushrooms; Natural killer cells; Oncology; Original; Original Article; Patients; Platinum; Platinum - therapeutic use; Prognosis; Receptor, ErbB-2 - metabolism; Stomach Neoplasms - drug therapy; Targeted cancer therapy; Trastuzumab; Trastuzumab - therapeutic use
• ISSN: 0340-7004; 1432-0851
• DOI: 10.1007/s00262-021-03035-x

Background We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of natural killer (NK) cell activity for patients with HER2 + advanced gastric cancer (AGC) treated with first-line fluoropyrimidine–platinum doublet plus trastuzumab. Methods Forty-one patients with HER2 + AGC who received fluoropyrimidine–platinum doublet plus trastuzumab as first-line treatment were prospectively enrolled. NK cell activity was evaluated using the NK Vue®. Results The median age was 63.5 years, and 31 patients (75.6%) were male. Patients with low baseline NK cell activity (≤ median, n  = 21) were associated worse progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with patients with high baseline NK cell activity (> median, n  = 20) with a median PFS of 4.21 vs. 9.53 months ( P