Studies suggest that co-culturing cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells with dendritic cells (DC) augments CIK cells' tumor cytotoxicity. Expanding on this, a recent study demonstrates that DCs treated with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Sunitinib, prior to co-culture enhanced CIK cells' tumor cytotoxicity and promoted a Th1 phenotype in the CIK effector CD3+CD56+ subpopulation.

Cytokine induced killer (CIK) cells are an advantageous form of adoptive immune cell therapy, as studies demonstrate they are more cytotoxic to tumors than lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and are non-MHC restrictive.