Two cases of tongue cancer treated with intra- and peri-tumoral injection of recombinant interleukin-2 alone: immunohistochemistochemical considerations to clinical tumor response.
METHODS
Two cases with stage II tongue cancer who exhibited different responses to intra- and peri-tumoral administration of rIL-2 alone are presented. Special consideration is given to the relationship between tumor responses to rIL-2 and clinicopathological and immunohistopathological findings.


RESULTS
The patient who responded completely to treatment showed an exophytic tumor growth pattern, low-grade cancer invasion, and predominant infiltration of CD8+ lymphocytes over CD4+ lymphocytes in cancer cell nests. The non-responder showed endophytic tumor growth, high-grade cancer invasion, and uniform distribution of both CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes in cancer cell nests.


CONCLUSIONS
Distribution of adequate amounts of T lymphocytes subsets may be necessary in order for good tumor response to biotherapy with rIL-2; other clinical and histopathological variables predicting the effect for cancer chemotherapy remain to be identified.
Hiratsuka
H
H
Department of Oral Surgery, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
Noguchi
M
M
Kinji
H
H
Odajima
T
T
Kohama
G
G
D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D015552:Injections, Intralesional; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*
D007376:Interleukin-2; D011994:Recombinant Proteins