title: Surgical resection of metastatic renal cell carcinoma and melanoma after response to interleukin-2-based immunotherapy.
abstract: Thirty-one patients with disseminated melanoma or renal cell cancer (RCC) who had a limited relapse or persistent disease after a partial or complete response to interleukin-2 (IL-2)-based immunotherapy underwent resection of progressing tumors or residual sites of disease. There were no surgery-related deaths. The median time to disease progression after resection for patients with RCC (n = 16) and melanoma (n = 15) was 11 and 5 months, respectively. All patients with melanoma had tumor progression within 10 months of surgery. Seven of 16 patients with RCC were free of tumor progression 4 to 44 months after surgery. Three of 12 patients with RCC rendered disease-free by surgery remain disease-free after 2 years. These data suggest that surgical resection is a reasonable option in selected patients who have a relapse after responding to IL-2-based immunotherapy. Although this retrospective study could not determine the relative survival benefits of surgery and immunotherapy, it showed that resection of metastatic disease after a response to immunotherapy can result in significant disease-free survival in patients with RCC but not melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Sherry
authors.forename: H I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Pass
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D015979:Killer Cells, Lymphokine-Activated / Q000502:physiology; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000502:physiology; D008545:Melanoma / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha; D007376:Interleukin-2; D011994:Recombinant Proteins