***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
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    Input: Purpose To evaluate the efficacy of cytokine-induced killer ( CIK ) cell therapy in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma . Material s and methods R and omized phase II and III trials on CIK cell-based therapy were identified by electronic search es using a combination of "  hepatocellular carcinoma " and " cytokine-induced killer cells " . Results The analysis showed significant survival benefit ( one-year survival , p < 0.001 ; two-year survival , p < 0.001 ; median overall survival , p < 0.001 ) in favor of CIK-based therapy . Comparison of CIK group versus non-CIK group result ed in a significantly prolonged progression-free survival ( PFS ) ( p < 0.01 ) . A favored disease control rate ( DCR ) and overall response rate ( ORR ) were also observed in patients receiving CIK cell therapy ( p < 0.01 ) . Meanwhile , patients in the CIK group showed better quality of life ( QoL ) , diminished HBV-DNA content and AFP level ( p < 0.01 ) . Comparing T-lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood , the analysis showed the ratio of CD3 + , CD4 + , CD4+CD8 + and CD3+CD4 + T cells significantly increased in the CIK group , compared with the non-CIK group ( p < 0.01 ) . Conclusions CIK cell therapy demonstrated a significant superiority in prolonging the median overall survival , PFS , DCR , ORR and QoL of HCC patients . These results support further larger scale r and omized controlled trials for HCC patients with or without the combination of other therapeutic methods BACKGROUND Postsurgical recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) is frequent and fatal . Adoptive immunotherapy is active against HCC . We assessed whether postoperative immunotherapy could lower the frequency of recurrence . METHODS Between 1992 and 1995 , we did a r and omised trial in which 150 patients who had undergone curative resection for HCC were assigned adoptive immunotherapy  ( n=76 ) or  no adjuvant treatment  ( n=74 ) . Autologous lymphocytes activated vitro with recombinant interleukin-2 and antibody to CD3 were infused five times during the first 6 months . Primary endpoints were time to first recurrence and recurrence-free survival and analyses were by intention to treat . FINDINGS 76 patients received 370 ( 97 % ) of 380 scheduled lymphocyte infusions ( mean cell number per patient 7.1x10(10 ) [ SD 2.1 ] ; CD3 and HLA-DR cells 78 % [ 16 ] ) , and none had grade 3 or 4 adverse events . After a median follow-up of 4.4 years ( range 0.2 - 6.7 ) , adoptive immunotherapy decreased the frequency of recurrence by 18 % compared with controls ( 45 [ 59 % ] vs 57 [ 77 % ] ) [ corrected ] patients . Time to first recurrence in the immunotherapy group was significantly longer than that in the control group ( 48 % [ 37 - 59 ] vs 33 % [ 22 - 43 ] at 3 years , 38 % [ 22 - 54 ] vs 22 % [ 11 - 34 ] at 5 years ; p=0.008 ) . The immunotherapy group had significantly longer recurrence-free survival ( p=0.01 ) and disease-specific survival ( p=0.04 ) than the control group . Overall survival did not differ significantly between groups ( p=0.09 ) . INTERPRETATION Adoptive immunotherapy is a safe , feasible treatment that can lower recurrence and improve recurrence-free outcomes after surgery for HCC BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Cytokine-induced killer ( CIK ) cells have high anti-tumor activity for hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) . Whether CIK cell therapy can eradicate residual cancer cells and prevent or postpone tumor relapse after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization ( TACE ) should be testified . This study was to evaluate the efficacy of CIK cell therapy combined with TACE on HCC . METHODS A total of 146 consecutive patients with unresectable HCC were divided into combination group ( 72 patients treated with CIK cell therapy combined with TACE ) and TACE group ( 74 patients treated only with TACE ) . The progression-free survival ( PFS ) and overall survival ( OS ) were analyzed . RESULTS The 6-month , 1-year , and 2-year PFS rates were 72.2 % , 40.4 % , 25.3 % in combination group , and 34.8 % , 7.7 % , 2.6 % in TACE group . The median time to progression was 11 months [ 95 % confidence interval ( CI ) , 8 - 14 months ] in combination group and 5 months ( 95 % CI , 4 - 7 months ) in TACE group . The estimated 6-month , 1-year , and 2-year OS rates were 90.3 % , 71.9 % , 62.4 % in combination group , and 74.6 % , 42.8 % , 18.8 % in TACE group . The median OS was 31 months ( 95 % CI , 27 - 35 months ) in combination group and 10 months ( 95 % CI , 7 - 13 months ) in TACE group . The times of TACE , ECOG performance status , and CIK cell therapy were independent prognostic factors for PFS and OS . CONCLUSION Adjuvant immunotherapy with CIK cells could greatly improve the efficacy of TACE on HCC , and plays an important role in prolonging the PFS and OS of HCC patients after TACE The recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) after minimally invasive therapy is frequent . Adoptive immunotherapy is thought to be an effective method to lower recurrence and metastasis rates of malignant tumors . Therefore , 85 HCC patients after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation therapy were r and omized to immunotherapy group and no adjuvant therapy group .  Autologous cytokine-induced killer ( CIK ) cells were transfused via hepatic artery to the patients . The alteration of levels of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients was examined by flow cytometry . All patients were screened by computed tomography every 2 months to observe the tumor recurrent conditions .  After CIK cell infusions , the percentages of CD3 + , CD4 + , CD56 + , CD3+CD56 + cells , and CD4+/CD8 + ratio increased from 68.6±11.0 % , 31.1±9.0 % , 15.6±7.9 % , 5.2±3.1 % , and 1.1±0.5 to 70.7±10.1 % , 33.5±8.0 % , 18.4±9.4 % , 5.9±2.8 % , and 1.3±0.7 , respectively ( P<0.05 ) ; whereas the percentage of CD8 + cells decreased from 31.1±7.8 % to 28.6±8.3 % ( P<0.05 ) . The 1-year and 18-month recurrence rates of the study group were 8.9 % and 15.6 % , compared with 30.0 % and 40.0 % of the control group ( both P value < 0.05 ) . The data suggest that CIK cell transfusion is an effective treatment . It can boost the immunologic function in HCC patients and plays an important role in reducing the recurrence rate of HCC This study evaluated the clinical efficacy of autologous cytokine-induced killer ( CIK ) cell transfusion in combination with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization ( TACE ) and radiofrequency ablation ( RFA ) , compared to sequential therapy with TACE and RFA , for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) . We retrospectively studied 2 groups of HCC patients : 85 patients in the TACE+RFA+CIK group were treated with adoptive autologous CIK cell transfusion in combination with minimally invasive therapy , 89 patients in the TACE+RFA group were treated with minimally invasive therapy alone . The overall response rate was 76.5 % in the TACE+RFA+CIK group and 79.8 % in the TACE+RFA group . The disease control rate was higher in the TACE+RFA+CIK group than that in the TACE+RFA group ( 95.3 % vs. 88.8 % ) , but the difference was not significant ( P=0.113 ) . Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the patients in the TACE+RFA+CIK group had significantly longer overall survival ( 56 vs. 31 mo , P=0.001 ) and progression-free survival ( 17 vs. 10 mo , P=0.001 ) than those in the TACE+RFA group . No severe side effects occurred in the CIK cell transfusion patients . In conclusion , CIK cell immunotherapy may be a valuable therapeutic strategy to prevent recurrence and metastasis in HCC patients after TACE and RFA , and to improve patient prognosis and quality of life .  Combined CIK immunotherapy and minimally invasive therapies represent a safe , potential treatment modality for HCC . However , because patient assignment to the 2 treatments was not r and omized , any conclusions concerning improvements in survival must be interpreted with great caution OBJECTIVE To explore the clinical efficacy of dendritic cell-cytokine induced killer cell ( DC-CIK ) immunotherapy combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization ( TACE ) for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma . METHODS Thirty patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with TACE combined with DC-CIK cell therapy and 38 patients treated with TACE alone ( control group ) were compared for progression-free survival time , overall survival time , quality of life , and treatment-related adverse events . RESULTS The median progression-free survival was 16 months in the combined treatment group as compared with 7 months in the control group ( P=0.033 ) . The median overall survival time was 24 months in the combined treatment group and 13 months in the control group , with 1-year overall survival rates of 80 % and 75.2 % , respectively , showing no significant differences between the two groups ( P=0.089 ) . Multivariate analysis indicated that Barcelona-Clinic-Liver-Cancer ( BCLC ) staging and AFP level before treatment were two independent risk factors of progression-free survival time , and BCLC stage served also as an independent risk factor of the overall survival time . Ten patients in the combined treatment group ( 33.3 % ) showed improved quality of life , as compared with 4 patients ( 10.5 % ) in the control group ( P=0.034 ) . Three patients receiving DC-CIK treatment experienced fever and 1 had allergic reaction , and the symptoms remitted after expectant treatment . CONCLUSION Compared with TACE alone , DC-CIK immunotherapy combined with TACE can improve the patients ' progression-free survival time but not the overall survival time . The combined therapy also improves the quality of life of the patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and shows good treatment safety BACKGROUND With a resistance to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy , hepatocellular carcinoma has a high recurrence rate after radical resection . Adjuvant immunotherapy is a promising treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma . AIM To evaluate the effect of adjuvant immunotherapy with cytokine-induced killer cells on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma after radical resection . PATIENTS AND METHODS From January 2000 to January 2002 , we collected 127 patients that met the selection criteria and r and omly divided them into 3 groups . After radical resection of the tumor , immunotherapy with cytokine-induced killer cells was performed for 3 courses in 41 patients ( CIK-I group ) and 6 courses in 43 patients ( CIK-II group ) . The other 43 patients received no postoperative adjuvant therapy ( the control group ) . The 1- , 3- , and 5-year disease free survival rates and the overall survival were compared among the 3 groups . RESULTS The log-rank test showed that the disease-free survival rates were significantly higher in CIK-I group ( p=0.001 ) and CIK-II group ( p=0.004 ) than in the control group . No statistical significance was found between CIK-I group and CIK-II group ( p=0.345 ) . Cox regression suggested that treatment modality was a risk factor for recurrence . No statistical significance was found in the overall survival among the three groups . CONCLUSIONS Postoperative immunotherapy with cytokine-induced killer cells may prevent recurrence/metastasis after radical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma . However , it can not improve the overall survival OBJECTIVE To assess the long-term efficacy and investigate the prognostic factors of cytokine-induced killer ( CIK ) combined with the sequential transarterial chemoembolization ( TACE ) and radiofrequency ablation ( RFA ) on hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) . METHOD A total of 95 HCC patients with the informed consents received TACE combined with RFA  , 48 cases of which accepted the CIK via intravenous drop infusion for more than 6 times ( study group ) while the other 47 cases were enrolled 
    Output:
    
Adjuvant CIK cell-based immunotherapy is a promising therapeutic approach that can improve overall survival and reduce recurrence in patients with HCC