Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy is a type of adoptive immunotherapy that due to its high proliferation rate and anti-tumor characteristics, is being investigated to treat various solid tumors. Since advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) has high mortality and poor survival rates, and the efficacy of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is limited in treatment, the application of CIK cell therapy in CRC has been evaluated in numerous studies. This review aims to summarize the clinical studies that investigated the safety and clinical efficacy of CIK cell therapy in CRC. Therefore, 1,969 enrolled CRC patients in the clinical trials, of which 842 patients received CIK cells in combination with chemotherapy with or without dendritic cell (DC) infusions, were included in the present review. Furthermore, the signaling pathways involved in CIK cell therapy and novel methods for improving migration abilities are discussed.

The total number of 4-6 billion cells can be obtained after 14 days of culture in a 2 L system, and the proportion of CD3+CD56+ is stable at 10% to 20%.

Pure factor induction, with no trophoblast cells, with the simple and easy culturing method, when combined with the newly upgraded basic culture medium of immune cells, significantly improved the continuous expansion ability of cells after 7 consecutive days of culturing, and the continuous support ability of cells expanded from 2 L system to 3 L or even 4 L system after 14 days.

The basic culture medium has been filed with FDA DMF with the filing No. of 37874