Iodine-125 seed implantation and allogenic natural killer cell immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma after liver transplantation: a case report

For advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, liver transplantation (LT) is an optimal treatment with limitation of high risk of tumor recurrence related to the immunosuppressive chemotherapy as usually recommended. In this study, a 29-year-old man suffered from HCC recurrence after LT. He underwent radiotherapy (total dose: 45 Gy) but had no significant response. Then, he received iodine-125 seed implantation combined with allogenic natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy. Liver function, immune function, circulating tumor cell counts and computed tomography scans were evaluated to determine the clinical effect. We found that this combined treatment produced enhanced immune function of the patient and reduction in tumor size. This is the first report of an efficacy and safety study about clinical regimen comprising allogenic NK cell immunotherapy combined with iodine-125 seed implantation for the treatment of HCC recurrence after LT.