Significant clinical response of advanced colorectal cancer to combination therapy involving capecitabine and adoptive cell transfer therapy: a case report

Significant clinical response was obtained in a patient with stage IV colorectal cancer (CRC) following combination therapy involving capecitabine and adoptive cell transfer therapy. She had laparoscopic lower anterior resection and left liver metastatic carcinoma resecting in 20th, February, 2017. Capecitabine was used to further treatment for an unresectable hepatic metastasis. The serum level of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was increased significantly after dropped temporarily. Since then, the patient took the adoptive cell transfer therapy at the same time. αβT cells and NK cells were injected intravenously into the patient. After the first transfusion with αβT cells, the tumor biomarker, CEA, dropped obviously from 14.7 to 6.1 ng/mL. And it came to 1.9 ng/mL after four times treatment, which was back into normal range (<5 ng/mL). Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to reveal the detailed immunological status of this patient before and after adoptive cell transfer therapy. With 19-month follow-up, neither recurrence or complication was founded. Combination therapy involving adoptive immunotherapy and capecitabine may be the potential method for advanced CRC with less complication.