ABSTRACT
An early claim that peripheral blood lymphocytes from cancer patients selectively kill tumor cells in microcytotoxicity assays was followed by the recognition that lymphocytes from normal individuals possess the same cytotoxic reactivity. This chapter reviews the evolution of our clinical protocol involving interleukin-2 and lymphokine-activated killer cell therapy. As a laboratory-based company specializing in the development of biological therapy for cancer, Biotherapeutics, Inc. has made a major commitment to the production of activated cells suitable for adoptive immunotherapy. In the design of our clinical trial of adoptive cellular therapy we chose a continuous infusion schedule for recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2). By shortening periods of cellular therapy to 15 days and, thereby, avoiding excessive fatigue, we have also been able to add monthly infusions of maintenance rIL-2 for stable or responding patients. The availability of recombinant human lymphokines and the refinement of cell-culturing techniques will lead to an explosion of trials involving cellular therapy of cancer in humans.
