Natural killer cells in ovarian cancer therapy: mechanisms, evasion, and therapeutic innovations.

Ovarian cancer, one of the most prevalent and formidable malignant tumours within the female reproductive system, poses a grave threat to women's health and lives. Although the current standard-of-care treatments-including cytoreductive surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy, supplemented by maintenance therapy with anti-angiogenic agents and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, can alleviate the disease to a certain extent, they face significant limitations, such as resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs, toxicity to normal tissues, and recurrence of the tumour. In contrast, natural killer (NK) cells, as an important part of the body's immune system, have anti-tumour activities, and their interaction with ovarian cancer cells to kill ovarian cancer cells brings new hope for cell therapy. The aim of this paper is to summarize the mechanisms involved in NK cells in ovarian cancer treatment, the current status of clinical applications, and new research strategies in the future, with the aim of providing a reference for the development of research and clinical practice in this field.