NK CELL ACTIVITY IN CANCER
NK Vue ™ test kit Meaning
- NK cell activity evaluation has been shown to be a useful tool for monitoring changes in (immunosurveillance). From there, NK activity can indicate signs of an underlying medical condition or an existing condition in the body tested.
- NK Vue™ (Researched and developed by ATGen Co., Korea, 2013) is a non-invasive test and intervention in patients, just 1 ml of blood is cultured in specialized environment to evaluate ability to secrete and eliminate foreign cells of NK cells in whole blood. If the test results show that NK cell activity is low, this is a high value basis for clinicians to perform additional malignant screening examinations such as imaging, endoscopy, biochemical test, pathology… to make a final diagnosis.
- It can be said that low NK cell activity shows that the body’s ability to protect itself against pathogens is weak, incapable or being “defeated” by disease factors. This is one of the conditions for foreign cells such as malignant tumors, viruses to grow and cause disease to us.
NK activity value & recommendations 
NK cell activity and Cancer
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NK cell activity (NKA) is thought to be a consistent throughout feature in healthy individuals. Thus, the low, medium and high NK activity in each individual does not change much until the pathogen develops. People with low cytotoxic activity of low NK cells have been shown in an epidemiological study to have a higher risk of cancer than normal people. Research has shown that reduced NK cell activity is found in patients with dense, wide-ranging tumors, and this may be related to the development of distant metastases of malignant tumors. Families with high incidence of cancer have shown reduced NK cell activity compared to controls.
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NKA has been shown to decrease in breast, prostate, liver, lung, and colorectal cancer patients. In colorectal cancer, lower NK cell activity is associated with metastatic occurrence and poor survival. In prostate cancer, NK cell activity has been shown to be directly related to stage and severity, response to therapy and PSA values.
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In addition, low NKA has been found in patients with autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and in patients with prolonged fatigue syndrome. In the elderly, low NK cell activity is associated with an increased risk of infections and comorbidities, while well maintained NK cell activity may help to increase life expectancy in the elderly.
References:
- 1) Lee, S.-B. et al. A high-throughput assay of NK cell activity in whole blood and its clinical application. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 2014 Mar 14;445(3):584–590.
- Nghiên cứu hoạt tính tế bào NK và ung thư tụy: Koo, K. C. et al. 2) Koo, K. C. et al. Reduction of the CD16(-)CD56bright NK cell subset precedes NK cell dysfunction in prostate cancer. PLoS ONE. 2013 Nov 4;8(11):e78049.
