Clinical application of adoptive immunotherapy and IL-2 for the treatment of advanced digestive tract cancer.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the clinical efficacy of systemic and locoregional adoptive immunotherapy (AIT) with or without interleukin-2 (IL-2) against solid metastatic lesions from digestive tract cancer, which are refractory to conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy.


METHODS
Seven of 18 patients received hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) of lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells with or without IL-2 against metastatic liver tumors (local therapy group). The remaining 11 patients received systemic transfer of LAK cells with IL-2 against metastatic lesions located in organs other than the liver (systemic therapy group).


RESULTS
Three of the 7 local therapy group patients showed clinically significant tumor regressions and this was evaluated as being equivalent to partial response (PR) (response rate: 43%). Two of the 11 systemic therapy group patients showed tumor regression which was evaluated as being equivalent to either complete response (CR) or PR (response rate: 18%). These 2 effective cases in the systemic therapy group were esophageal cancer patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Locoregional AIT with or without IL-2 against liver metastases of digestive tract cancer could be an effective therapeutic modality in some patients who are refractory to conventional therapies. However, clinical efficacy of systemic AIT with IL-2 against metastases of digestive tract cancer would not be an effective modality except for the metastases of esophageal cancer.
Ueda
Y
Y
Second Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.
Yamagishi
H
H
Tanioka
Y
Y
Fujiwara
H
H
Fuji
N
N
Itoh
T
T
Fujiki
H
H
Yoshimura
T
T
Oka
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000097:blood; D016516:CD4-CD8 Ratio; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006499:Hepatic Artery; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive; D007267:Injections; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015979:Killer Cells, Lymphokine-Activated / Q000276:immunology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D015703:Antigens, CD; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D007376:Interleukin-2