ABSTRACT
In 1982, the term lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) phenomenon was coined to describe a novel lymphocytotoxic system with many apparent characteristics distinct from the accepted natural killer (NK) and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cells. This chapter aims to review pertinent aspects of the human LAK system, and to summarize new data concerning the potential biological role in the treatment of cancer and other human diseases. LAK can be generated from any sample of lymphoid tissue, including PBL from either normal or cancer patients, thoracic duct lymphocytes, cord blood lymphocytes, lymph node, spleen, thymus, bone marrow, and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. The hallmark of the LAK system is its extremely efficient and rapid ability to kill fresh tumor cells. The LAK system can be distinguished from the classical NK and CTL cells by a variety of characteristics. Lymphokine-activated killer cells LAK are cytolytic lymphocytes with the unique capacity of killing NK-resistant fresh human tumor cells in short-term assays.
