{"entity":{"id":"nk-cell-therapy","kind":"technology","name":"NK cell therapy and CAR-NK","aka":[],"tldr":"Infusions of natural killer cells from donors or cord blood, sometimes fitted with a CAR, offering an off-the-shelf alternative to CAR-T with less cytokine release.","summary":"Natural killer cells kill cancer cells without prior sensitisation and do not cause graft-versus-host disease, so donor-derived, cord-blood or iPSC-derived NK products can be made off the shelf. CAR-NK cells against CD19 produced responses in lymphoma in early trials with little cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity, and cytokine-induced memory-like NK cells are tested in leukaemia. Limited persistence and expansion in patients remain the central problems.","status":"phase-2","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_killer_cell","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_killer_cell"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["dlbcl","aml"],"sections":["cell-therapy"],"technologies":["car-t","allogeneic-cell-therapy"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":["cell-therapy-cold-chain","cell-therapy-release-testing"],"notes":[],"principle":"NK cells from a donor, cord blood or a pluripotent stem cell line are expanded, optionally engineered with a CAR and interleukin-15, and infused after lymphodepletion.","strengths":["Off-the-shelf manufacturing","Low rates of cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity","No graft-versus-host disease"],"limitations":["Poor in vivo persistence","Repeated dosing often needed","No approval yet"]},"route":"/technologies/nk-cell-therapy/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"aml","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute myeloid leukaemia","route":"/cancers/aml/"},{"id":"dlbcl","kind":"cancer","name":"Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma","route":"/cancers/dlbcl/"}],"section":[{"id":"cell-therapy","kind":"section","name":"Cell Therapy","route":"/fronts/cell-therapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"allogeneic-cell-therapy","kind":"technology","name":"Allogeneic (off-the-shelf) cell therapy","route":"/technologies/allogeneic-cell-therapy/"},{"id":"car-nk-macrophage","kind":"technology","name":"CAR-NK & CAR-macrophage","route":"/technologies/car-nk-macrophage/"},{"id":"car-t","kind":"technology","name":"CAR-T cell therapy","route":"/technologies/car-t/"},{"id":"cell-therapy-release-testing","kind":"technology","name":"Cell-therapy release and potency testing","route":"/technologies/cell-therapy-release-testing/"},{"id":"cell-therapy-cold-chain","kind":"technology","name":"Cryopreservation and cell-therapy cold chain","route":"/technologies/cell-therapy-cold-chain/"}]}}