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. 1993 Mar;37(2):119–124. doi: 10.1007/BF01517044

Immunotherapy with intralesional and systemic interleukin-2 of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer

Marco Scudeletti 1,✉, Gilberto Filaci 1, Maria A Imro 1, Giovanni Motta 2, Marina Di Gaetano 2, Ivana Pierri 1, Stefania Tongiani 1, Francesco Indiveri 1, Francesco Puppo 1
PMCID: PMC11038392  PMID: 8391391

Abstract

Eight patients affected by non-small-cell lung cancer were treated with intralesional and systemic recombinant IL-2(rIL-2) injection with the aim of activating both tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and circulating cytotoxic or killer cells. The schedule of treatment was as follows: a daily fine-needle transparietal intralesional rIL-2 injection (1×105 Cetus units) from day 1 to day 5 and systemic rIL-2 infusion (1×105 Cetus units kg−1 day−1) from day 6 to day 10. One to four cycles of treatment were received by each patient. Clinical and immunological evaluations were performed (a) before treatment, (b) following the intralesional rIL-2 administration, (c) 1 h after the beginning of rIL-2 infusion and (d) at the end of the systemic rIL-2 infusion. No complete remission was achieved, two patients showed a partial remission, three resulted in stable disease and three patients progressed. Natural killer and lymphokine-activated killer cell activity dramatically decreased 1 h after the beginning of rIL-2 infusion and increased at the end of treatment. A progressive increase of circulating CD8+ and HLA class II+ T cells as well as of CD8+ T cell clones, most of which displayed NK activity, was recorded following rIL-2 infusion. Present data indicate that (a) the local administration of rIL-2 coupled with systemic rIL-2 infusion may be suggested as an alternative approach for the immunotherapy of lung cancer, (b) rIL-2 induces different immunological modifications according to the route and the time of its administration and (c) rIL-2 administration increases the amount of circulating immune cells with potential antitumour activity.

Key words: Interleukin-2, Lung cancer, Immunotherapy

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