Interleukin-12 - Opportunities for the treatment of bladder cancer

Despite incomplete understanding of the human immune system, the rapid prog ress in tumor immunology provides a framework for effective and safe interv entions in the near future. Early approaches in patients with cancer that h ave focused on the nonspecific and broad stimulation of the immune system b y interferons and IL-12 will be replaced by the highly specific stimulation of immune reactions targeting precisely defined tumor antigens. IL-12 has several biologic properties that seem useful in immune therapy fur bladder cancer. The striking antitumor responses with IL-12 in preclinical animal m odels of bladder cancer provide optimism that future clinical trials involv ing this agent may impact on the risk and mortality associated with this di sease.