Nahi, Hareth, Chrobook, Michael, Meinke, Stephan, Gran, Charlotte, Marquardt, Nicole, Afram, Gabriel, Sutlu, Tolga, Gilljam, Mari, Stellan, Birgitta, Wagner, Arnika Kathleen, Walther-Jallow, Lilian, Liwing, Johan, Klimkowska, Monika, Gahrton, Goesta, Ljungman, Per, Ljunggren, Hans-Gustaf, and Alici, Evren
Introduction: Immunotherapies are gaining more and more importance in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). Antibodies directed against MM antigens like CD38, SLAMF7 or BCMA are used either in their natural form, conjugated to drugs, or in the form of bispecific T-cell engagers. Cellular therapies make use of cytotoxic lymphocytes, i.e. T cells or NK cells that can also be modified to express chimeric antigen receptors to target MM cells. Combinations of antibody and cellular therapies could further improve the outcome as, for example, NK cells can mediate antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). However, NK cells also express CD38 and SLAMF7 and would be targeted by the therapeutic antibodies against these antigens. We have recently reported our clinical study infusing multiple doses of ex vivoactivated and expanded autologous NK cells in six patients with MM post autologous stem-cell transplantation (EudraCT 2010-022330-83). Here, we report results of a phenotypic analysis of the ex vivoexpanded NK cells and peripheral blood NK cells before and after infusion with implications for possible combination therapies.