Abstract:
Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide in 2022, and conventional treatment modalities offer limited efficacy for patients with advanced or recurrent disease. Natural killer (NK) cells are a subset of lymphocytes capable of non-specifically eliminating tumor cells and virus-infected cells without prior sensitization, and have emerged as a research focus in the field of cancer immunotherapy. However, the systematic elucidation and in-depth analysis are required in the dual regulatory mechanisms of NK cells within the cervical cancer microenvironment and the bottlenecks hindering their clinical translation. This article reviews the application of NK cell-based immunotherapy in CC, summarizes the mechanisms of action and therapeutic advances of NK cells in CC, identifies the major obstacles to current clinical translation, and proposes corresponding solutions.