ABSTRACT
The in vitro studies indicating the ability of lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells to lyse fresh tumor targets led to a number of studies using LAK plus interleukin-2 (IL-2) to treat cancers in animals. An approach, which uses adoptively transferred cells, is the isolation of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and their expansion with IL-2. Two IL-2 plus LAK treatment regimens have been developed that are currently the major ones being used to treat patients. In the initial regimen developed at the National Cancer Institute in pilot studies that use this therapy to treat patients with advanced cancer, a standard cycle of therapy consists of 16 days of treatment. Attempts are ongoing in the laboratory and through a variety of clinical trials to improve the effectiveness of this therapy, to decrease toxicity, and to combine it with other treatment modalities to help establish what role IL-2 alone or in combination with LAK cells might have in the overall treatment of cancer.
