The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: April, 1996
Interleukin 2

• A way to improve the results of immunotherapy? - Responses to immunotherapy may often depend on adequate mobilization of active "natural killer" (NK) cells to attack the tumor cells. A study from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, showed that low doses of interleukin 2 given by daily subcutaneous injection could expand the population of NK cells in adult cancer patients by between 154 and 530%. Although the response was dependent on dose level, and the researchers took the interleukin dose to the maximum tolerated (1.25 million IU/m2), when vomiting and raised blood sugar levels prevented further increase, side-effects at somewhat lower but still effective doses were chiefly mild skin reactions, chills and fever. Peak NK cell levels required 6-8 weeks treatment and were sustained over a 12-week course. (Meropol, Clin Cancer Res 2:669)