NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE USE OF CYTOKINES FOR CANCER-THERAPY

Cytokines, the pleiotropic immune regulatory proteins, are involved in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation and functional activat ion. Novel cytokines have been enumerated in rapid succession and ente red the clinical arena. IL-2 is well recognized for its antitumor effe cts and is accepted therapy for numerous malignancies. IL-1 and IL-11 are important as thrombopoetic factors while IL-6 has been introduced in clinical trials as a platelet growth factor and as an antitumor age nt. IL-4 has shown growth inhibitory effects against many solid tumor cell lines in vitro, but its direct effect on human tumors in vivo rem ains to be explored. IL-7 may be an important addition to the current strategies of adoptive immunotherapy. IL-12 plays a fundamental role i n activating antitumor cellular immunity. When given with tumor associ ated antigens, IL-12 has proven effective against many forms of metast atic solid tumors. Immunotoxins appear to be promising though the anti genicity of the molecule and antibody development aspects remain to be resolved. The current review will focus on the clinical use of novel cytokines for the treatment of cancel.