Table 1. . Immunological characteristics of 12 chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients treated with obinutuzumab.

CD56+ NK cells (effector cells/ml)	Baseline	After obinutuzumab	CD19 (target cells/ml) Baseline	After obinutuzumab	Tumor destruction in PB
Patient 1	314	24	204,052	170,355	33,697
Patient 2	396	60	229	8	221
Patient 3	1923	36	62,338	357	61,981
Patient 4	305	ND	93,435	ND	ND
Patient 10	221	17	61,495	22,836	38,659
Patient 12	147	6	492	4	488
Patient 5	67	1	214	248	0
Patient 6	91	10	115	419	0
Patient 7	343	ND	12283	ND	ND
Patient 8	483	10	47,067	15,383	31,684
Patient 9	235	1	6688	309	6379
Patient 11	284	76	68,831	17447	51,384

The bold details are to indicate the values used in the statistical analysis (paired samples).

Cells were counted by flow cytometry with monoclonal antibodies against CD56 and CD19. CD56⁺ cells represent ‘classic warriors’ such as NK cells and T cells in PB of CLL patients. These CD56⁺ cells represent effector cells. CD19⁺ cells represent target cells and represent leukemic CLL B cells and normal B cells in the blood of CLL patients. Tumor destruction in PB = baseline target cells - target cells detected after one 1000 mg dose of obinutuzumab. Both CD19 counts in tumor destruction in PB are used to detect the association between effectors (NK cell count) and tumor destruction in PB using a Rho Spearman's (correlation) test. (rs = 0.63222, p[2-tailed] = 0.049). A linear regression model analyzing the relationship between the baseline effectors (CD56⁺ NK cells) and target (CD19⁺ leukemic CLL B cells) destruction shows that on average, 25 target CD19⁺ cells are destroyed by each effector CD56⁺ cell (p = 0.03777). The regression equation is: number of targets destroyed = 3670.4 + 24.8 * NK + 0.187 * baseline tumor, with R2 of 0.67.

CLL: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia; ND: Not done; NK: Natural killer; PB: Peripheral blood.