The role of interleukin-2 in the biotherapy of cancer

Abstract

Therapy with interleukin-2 (IL-2) achieves reproducible objective responses in 20%-30% of patients with malignant melanoma (MM) and renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This cytokine has significant dose and schedule dependence with regard to both clinical toxicity and biological activity. This article reviews the current status of clinical trials with IL-2 used as a single agent in a variety of doses and schedules or in combination with lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells in RCC and MM. The article also discusses the rationale, preclinical data, and preliminary clinical trial experience with IL-2 in combination with other cytokines such as IFN-alpha, monoclonal antitumor antibodies, and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).