title: Primary analysis for clinical efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Immunotherapy is an important treatment for pancreatic cancer (PC) patients. To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy in the treatment of PC, we performed a systemic review and meta-analysis of the relevant published clinical trials, collectively referred to as DC, DC-CIK, LAK, NK and GM-CSF secreting PC cell lines.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 413 patients in 11 eligible trials with PC were selected for the present meta-analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimated pooled overall survival showed a significant improvement for PC patients who received immunotherapy compared with nonimmunotherapy. The lymphocyte subsets, immune cytokine levels and serum cancer markers in the peripheral blood of PC patients were significantly improved after immunotherapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that immunotherapy can improve the efficacy of the treatment of PC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 3 East Qingchun Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, 310016, China.
authors.forename: Linghua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: The General Hospital of Beijing Military Command, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016207:Cytokines / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines
keywords: cytokine-induced killer cells; dendritic cells; immunotherapy; lymphokine-activated killer cells; meta-analysis; natural killer cells; pancreatic cancer