ABSTRACT
Neoplastic processes occurring in the central nervous system (CNS) have remained a very difficult problem in oncology. Two manifestations of CNS malignancy have been the subjects of recent investigations utilizing lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells: primary astrocytic tumors, and leptomeningeal spread of tumor from primary CNS processes or from distant malignancies. Leptomeningeal spread of primary neoplastic processes in the CNS, or spread of non-CNS malignancies, into spinal fluid pathways results in a generally therapeutically refractory burden of leptomeningeal disease. The stimulation of peripheral lymphocytes with interleukin-2, with the resultant transformation to LAK cells with its attendant tumoricidal states was first reported by E. A. Grimm and her associates in 1982. The encumbrances to the application of current LAK cell therapy to this focal disease in the brain continue to be vexing problems in applying LAK or other cytotoxic therapeutic modality to brain tumors.
