Successes and Challenges of NK Immunotherapy

Successes and Challenges of NK Immunotherapy: Increasing Anti-tumor Efficacy describes the unique therapeutic applications of NK cells to fight cancers and eliminate the bulk and subset of cancer stem cells responsible for metastasis, relapse and recurrences. The book provides information on the development, engineering, mechanisms of action, response to various preclinical models, and applications in various clinical trials. Sections cover the development of highly engineered cytotoxic NK cells, their mechanisms of action, preclinical and clinical applications, the development and application of CAR-NK cells, and new NK-drug conjugates, also emphasizing that activated NK cells can target and kill highly resistant cancer stem cells. Written by the leading experts on NK immunotherapy worldwide, this is a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians and members of the biomedical field who are interested in understanding novel and efficient therapies to fight cancers.

Benjamin Bonavida, PhD, has been involved in the field of immunology and cancer biology for several decades and has published extensively in the fields of cancer resistance, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and various molecular approaches to circumvent the resistance of the cancer cells using sensitizing agents. Accordingly, he was the first to publish a book on tumor sensitization in 2008. More recently, Dr. Bonavida is the Series Editor of 3 series published by Elsevier/Academic Press (“Cancer Sensitizing Agents for Chemotherapy,” “Breaking Cancer Resistance to Therapeutic Antibodies,” and “Breaking Tolerance to Anti-Cancer Immunotherapy”) and several books have been published and many are in development. He has published extensively in the field of NK biology and cytotoxicity in the past, and many of these publications were in collaboration with the co-editor Dr. Anahid Jewett. Dr. Anahid Jewett, PhD, MPH, is well-known nationally and internationally for her contribution to the field of NK biology, tumor immunology and cancer immunotherapy. She serves on the editorial board of many prestigious journals and has been a reviewer on the board of National Institute of Health study sections. She holds several patents and has published more than 100 high impact journal articles, reviews, commentaries and book chapters in the field of cancer. Dr. Jewett’s major contributions to science and NK cell biology were the identification, characterization and the establishment of the concept of split anergy in NK cells, establishment of the role of NK cells in elimination, selection and differentiation of cancer stem cells as well as healthy stem cells, and methods to generate large numbers of super-charged NK cells which are in use currently in clinical trials of cancer patients.