Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To explore the differences of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells from healthy persons and patients with primary cervical cancer，in their phenotype，proliferation activity，cytotoxic activity and antitumor effects in vitro and in vivo. METHODS：CIK cells were generated by IFN-γ，CD3McAb，IL-2，IL-1 induction of cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of both 8 healthy blood donors and 8 cervical cancer patients. These treated cells were followed at different intervals by MTT assays and flow cytometry analysis. The antitumor activity of the CIK，LAK and PBMC cells were evaluated in BALB/c nude mice bearing HeLa cervical cancer. RESULTS：There was no significant difference in proliferation performance of CIK cells between healthy persons and cervical cancer patients (P>0.05). The flow cytometry analysis showed that the percentage of CD3+CD56+ cells increased from 0.13% on day 0 to 25.8% on day 28. CIK cells generated from patients with cervical cancer patients possessed a higher antitumor cytotoxic activity in vitro than PBMC. In addition，CIK cells had a stronger suppressive effect on tumor growth in BALB/c nude mice bearing cervical cancer than LAK cells (median inhibitory rates 80.6% vs 59.1%， respectively，P <0.01) or PBMC (median inhibitory rates 80.6% vs 38.3%，respectively，P <0.01). The tumor size in the experiment group was smaller than that in the control group after CIK treatment (P<0.05). CONCLUSION：CIK cells had a significantly stronger suppression on growth of cervical cancer cells，providing an experimental basis for CIK clinical use as an adoptive immunotherapy.

Key words: cytokine induced killer cell, cervical cancer, antitumor, adoptive immunotherapy