title: Advances in clinical NK cell studies: Donor selection, manufacturing and quality control.
abstract: Natural killer (NK) cells are increasingly used in clinical studies in order to treat patients with various malignancies. The following review summarizes platform lectures and 2013-2015 consortium meetings on manufacturing and clinical use of NK cells in Europe and United States. A broad overview of recent pre-clinical and clinical results in NK cell therapies is provided based on unstimulated, cytokine-activated, as well as genetically engineered NK cells using chimeric antigen receptors (CAR). Differences in donor selection, manufacturing and quality control of NK cells for cancer immunotherapies are described and basic recommendations are outlined for harmonization in future NK cell studies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cellular Therapeutics, IFB-Tx, Hannover Medical School , Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Koehl
authors.affiliation: Diagnostic Hematology, University Hospital Basel , Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kalberer
authors.affiliation: Glycostem Therapeutics , Oss, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spanholtz
authors.affiliation: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Pediatrics , Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cooley
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Royal Free Hospital, UCL Medical School , London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lowdell
authors.affiliation: Hematology and Oncology, Benjamin Franklin faculty of Charité , Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Uharek
authors.affiliation: NantKwest Inc., Research & Development , Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Klingemann
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, Institute of Hematology "L. and A. Seràgnoli", Berlin, University of Bologna , Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Curti
authors.affiliation: Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital , Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Center for Hematology and Regenerative Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Stockholm Sweden; Cell therapies institute, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA; Hematology Center, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alici
keywords: Clinical NK cell studies; ex vivo expansion; manufacturing of NK cell products; quality control