Pancreatic cancer is among the three deadliest cancers worldwide with the lowest 5-year survival of all cancers. Despite all efforts, therapeutic improvements have barely been made over the last decade. Even recent highly promising targeted and immunotherapeutic approaches did not live up to their expectations. Therefore, other horizons have to be explored. Natural Killer (NK) cells are gaining more and more interest as a highly attractive target for cancer immunotherapies, both as pharmaceutical target and for cell therapies. In this systematic review we summarise the pathophysiological adaptions of NK cells in pancreatic cancer and highlight possible (future) therapeutic NK cell-related targets. Furthermore, an extensive overview of recent therapeutic approaches with an effect on NK cells is given, including cytokine-based, viro- and bacteriotherapy and cell therapy. We also discuss ongoing clinical trials that might influence NK cells. In conclusion, although several issues regarding NK cells in pancreatic cancer remain unsolved and need further investigation, extensive evidence is already provided that support NK cell oriented approaches in pancreatic cancer.

胰腺癌是全球三大致命癌症之一，其所有癌症的5年生存率最低。尽管做出了所有努力，但在过去十年中几乎没有取得治疗上的进步。即使是最近非常有前途的靶向和免疫治疗方法也未能达到他们的期望。因此，必须探索其他的视野。天然杀伤（NK）细胞作为药物免疫靶标和细胞疗法的一种极具吸引力的癌症免疫治疗靶标越来越受到关注。在本系统综述中，我们总结了胰腺癌中NK细胞的病理生理适应性，并强调了可能的（未来）治疗性NK细胞相关靶标。此外，还对影响NK细胞的近期治疗方法进行了广泛的概述，包括基于细胞因子的，病毒和细菌疗法以及细胞疗法。我们还将讨论可能影响NK细胞的正在进行的临床试验。总之，尽管有关胰腺癌中NK细胞的几个问题仍未解决，需要进一步研究，但已经提供了广泛的证据支持胰腺癌中以NK细胞为导向的方法。