{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T20:55:27Z","timestamp":1785876927043,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,16]],"date-time":"2025-09-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1757980800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cells"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Over the past decade, cellular immunotherapy has emerged as a transformative strategy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with dendritic-cell (DC) vaccines, T-cell vaccines, and natural killer (NK)-cell therapies demonstrating distinct mechanisms and clinical potential. DC vaccines capitalize on antigen presentation to prime tumor-specific T-cell responses, showing excellent safety profiles limited mainly to injection-site reactions and flu-like symptoms. While monotherapy has shown limited efficacy, combinations with checkpoint inhibitors or chemotherapy enhance immune activation and survival outcomes. Recent innovations, including neoantigen-loaded, mRNA-electroporated, and exosome-pulsed DCs, demonstrate improved immunogenicity and personalized approaches. T-cell vaccines, designed to activate cytotoxic CD8+ T-cell responses, have been tested across multiple platforms, including peptide-based (MAGE-A3), viral vector (TG4010\/MUC1), and mRNA (CV9201\/92) formulations. While the phase III MAGRIT trial presented no disease-free survival (DFS) benefit with adjuvant MAGE-A3 vaccination, the TG4010 vaccine improved progression-free survival (PFS; HR 0.66) and overall survival (OS; HR 0.67) in MUC1-positive NSCLC when combined with chemotherapy. Current strategies focus on personalized neoantigen vaccines and KRAS-targeted approaches (e.g., ELI-002), with ongoing phase III trials evaluating their potential in resectable NSCLC. NK-cell therapies have also shown promise, with early trials establishing the feasibility of autologous and allogeneic infusions, while engineered CAR-NK cells enhance tumor-specific targeting. Combination strategies with checkpoint inhibitors significantly improve response rates and PFS, revealing synergies between innate and adaptive immunity. Recent advances include cytokine-enhanced, memory-like NK cells to overcome immunosuppression and \u201coff-the-shelf\u201d products for broader clinical use. Together, these cellular immunotherapies represent a versatile and evolving frontier in NSCLC treatment, with ongoing research optimizing combinations, delivery platforms, and patient selection to maximize therapeutic benefit.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cells14181453","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,17]],"date-time":"2025-09-17T05:59:51Z","timestamp":1758088791000},"page":"1453","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Advances in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cellular Immunotherapy: A Progress in Dendritic Cell, T-Cell, and NK Cell Vaccines"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Mirza","family":"Masroor Ali Beg","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Ala-Too International University, Bishkek 720048, Kyrgyzstan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammad","family":"Aslam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7596-8513","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Asma","family":"Ayaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Sports Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5486-4408","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad Saeed","family":"Akhtar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wajid","family":"Zaman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Life Sciences, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"209","article-title":"Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries","volume":"71","author":"Sung","year":"2021","journal-title":"CA Cancer J. 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