title: Treatment of stage III-IV nasopharyngeal carcinomas by external beam irradiation and local low doses of IL-2.
abstract: The therapeutic effect of intratumoural application of Interleukin-2 (IL-2) was studied in patients with stage III-IV nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) that received radiotherapy. Patients with stage III-IV NPC receiving a standard treatment of 7,000 cGy external beam irradiation have a mean disease-free survival of about 1.5 years. In this paper, we describe ten of these patients who were treated with additional peritumoural and intratumoural injections with 3 x 10(4) U IL-2 on 5 days in weeks 2, 4, and 6 of the 7-weeks' irradiation period. This combined treatment group was compared with a historical group of patients treated with standard irradiation alone. Local IL-2 therapy showed a marked clinical and statistical significant improvement of disease-free survival. After 5 years, 63% of the IL-2 treated patients were disease-free versus 8% of the control patients. These results suggest that the therapeutic results of radiotherapy can be significantly improved by combining it with local IL-2 treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first clinical report showing that local IL-2 therapy is effective against an infiltrative and locally metastasizing tumour in human patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, Utrecht Medical Centre, Yalelaan 1, P.O.Box 80.158, 3508 TD, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: John J L
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Gerrit J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hordijk
authors.forename: Ina M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Jürgenliemk-Schulz
authors.forename: Chris H J
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Terhaard
authors.forename: Jan W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Koten
authors.forename: Jan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Battermann
authors.forename: Willem
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Den Otter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D007376:Interleukin-2