Interleukin-2 in Bone Marrow Transplantation

The Rationale for not Routinely Purging Autologous Blood Stem Cell Grafts

“…One of the most logical and simple approaches is to administer treatment after PBSC infusion that is likely to affect both infused tumor and endogenous tumor. Current approaches being explored include interferons [54], interleukin-2 [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] and vaccines. Future studies will undoubtedly involve combinations of cytokines, vaccines and cytotoxic T -cells or activated NK cells.…”

“…Future studies will undoubtedly involve combinations of cytokines, vaccines and cytotoxic T -cells or activated NK cells. The incubation of PBSC with IL-2 followed by systemic IL-2 is promising since this approach has the possibility of affecting relapses from endogenous tumor as well as purging the graft [38,39]. In the future, consideration should be given to maintenance chemotherapy strategies involving agents that are not marrow toxic.…”

Interleukin‐2 Activation of Haematopoietic Stem Cells

“…IL‐2 stimulates proliferation of T‐lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells both in vitro and in vivo (5, 16). Incubation of lymphocytes with IL‐2 in vitro leads to proliferation of lymphokine‐activated killer (LAK) cells that exhibit a nonspecific anti‐tumour activity in a preclinical model (10, 29). The clinical relevance of such cell manipulations has never been unequivocally proven (9, 29).…”

“…Incubation of lymphocytes with IL‐2 in vitro leads to proliferation of lymphokine‐activated killer (LAK) cells that exhibit a nonspecific anti‐tumour activity in a preclinical model (10, 29). The clinical relevance of such cell manipulations has never been unequivocally proven (9, 29). Immunotherapy with IL‐2 may be a promising way to reduce the rate of relapses after autologous transplantation when the tumour mass is reduced to MRD (29).…”

“…The clinical relevance of such cell manipulations has never been unequivocally proven (9, 29). Immunotherapy with IL‐2 may be a promising way to reduce the rate of relapses after autologous transplantation when the tumour mass is reduced to MRD (29). Considering the high risk of unpredictable severe toxicity, trials with IL‐2 administered in high doses have been abandoned (12).…”