Selective expansion of circulating CD8+ lymphocytes during cancer immunotherapy with interleukin-2 plus alpha-interferon but not with interleukin-2 alone
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- Published online on: March 1, 1996 https://doi.org/10.3892/or.3.2.329
- Pages: 329-331
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Abstract
The use of interferons in anti-cancer therapy is justified by the experimental evidence that these cytokines are able to enhance in vitro the expression of some surface molecules such as major histocompatibility complex and tumor associated lymphocytes. Furthermore, a synergism of action of interleukin-2 with alpha-interferon in the treatment of human malignancies has been described. Nevertheless, whether the in vivo role of interferons associated to interleukin-2 as anti-cancer drugs is actually related to the properties of this cytokine of modulating surface molecule expression on target cells, has never been clearly reported. In this report, we describe an immune system cell resetting, during immunotherapy with interleukin-2 plus alpha-interferon, which seems to support this hypothesis.
