Prognostic impact of invariant natural killer T cells in solid and hematological tumors; systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are an immune subset that purportedly link the adaptive and the innate arms of the immune system. Importantly, iNKT cells contribute to anti-cancer immunity in different types of hematological and solid malignancies by secreting pro-inflammatory cytokines. Therefore, using such cells in treating different type of tumors would be an ideal candidate for cancer immunotherapy.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the prognostic effect of iNKT cells across different types of solid and hematological tumors.

METHODS

In systematic review and meta-analysis, articles assessed the prognostic effect of iNKT cells were systemically searched using the scientific databases including Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Cochrane Central, and Scopus.

RESULTS

Strikingly, the analysis showed the positive impact of intratumoral or circulating iNKT cells on the survival rate in patients with all studied tumors with overall effect of a pooled hazard ratio of 0.89 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.98; p= 0.01). A highly statistical heterogeneity was noted between studied tumor with I2 = 87%; p= 0.00001.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, this study would present a new insight into the impact of iNKT cells correlate with caner patients' survival rate and how such cells would be used as a therapeutic target in these patients.