Aim: The long-term efficacy of cytokine-induced killer cellular therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma patients after curative treatments remains controversial. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted, and the outcomes were the recurrence rate and overall survival. Results: Eight randomized clinical trials with 1038 participants were included. Compared with the control group, cytokine-induced killer cellular therapy group could reduce 1-year, 3-year recurrence rates, as well as improve 1–5 years overall survival for hepatocellular carcinoma patients (p < 0.05). However, it failed to affect the 5-year recurrence rate and 6-year overall survival (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Cytokine-induced killer cellular adjuvant therapy exerted a favorable role in improving early and long-term efficacy for hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

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Vol. 11, No. 15

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Received 20 May 2019

Accepted 18 August 2019

Published online 3 October 2019

Published in print October 2019

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Author contributions

J Wang and T Shen contributed equally to this work. Y Fang is the corresponding author.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

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