[Study of adoptive immunotherapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma with lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and interleukin-2. II. Clinical evaluation]

Abstract

We evaluated adoptive immunotherapy using LAK cells combined with systemic administration of interleukin-2 (IL-2) in 11 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The LAK cells were generated by incubation in serum-free medium (AIM-V) supplemented with IL-2 (1,000 U/ml) for 4 days and were generally administered twice weekly (4 times/cycle). Daily administration of IL-2 (50 x 10(5) U) was started 3 days prior to the first LAK infusion and continued throughout the cycle. Each course of therapy comprised 1-6 cycles, with the total dose of LAK cells and IL-2 varying from 3.3-52.6 x 10(9) cells and 140-900 x 10(5) U, respectively. Clinical response was evaluated in terms of metastasis to specific organs (lung only: eight cases, lung and brain: one, lung and lymph nodes: one, lung and bone and pleuropericardium: one). The outcome was complete response in one patient, partial response in one, no change in six and disease progression in three. The response rate was 18.8%. This therapy was most effective against pulmonary metastases. Adverse reactions to LAK cell infusion included fever, headache, and chills. Eosinophilia and weight gain due to IL-2 administration were also observed. However, all of these symptoms were transient and no serious side effects occurred. In these patients, the proportion of natural killer (NK) cells (CD16) and cells with IL-2 receptor (CD25) among PBL was increased markedly in the early phase of therapy, and activated T cell (CD3+DR+) and suppressor T cells (CD8+11+) increased significantly at a later phase. It was suggested that the clinical response would be expected in case of increasing of CD16 cells or CD25 cells and augmentation of NK or LAK activity. Our results indicate that this regimen of adoptive immunotherapy shows some promise for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.