ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>This research was aimed to evaluate the immune mechanism and clinical effect of immunotherapy of dendritic cells (DC) and cytokine-induced killer cell (CIK) combined with chemotherapy on multiple myeloma (MM).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>60 patients with MM were randomly divided into two groups. 30 patients in chemotherapy group were treated by chemotherapy only, 30 patients in joint group were treated by adoptive immunotherapy (DC-CIK) combined with chemotherapy. A variety of immunological indexes (Hsp70, Th1/Th2, TGF-β) of all patients before and after chemotherapy were recorded; Also the clinical outcomes between two groups were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After chemotherapy, the immunological indexes of all patients were better than those of before chemotherapy (P < 0.05); After treatment, quality of life, clinical index and survival in joint group were better than in chemotherapy group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Chemotherapy could break the immunosuppression of MM and improve the anti-tumor response of DC-CIK; Chemotherapy and DC-CIK may have synergistic effect for MM.</p>