Does interferon-alpha exert an anti-leukemic effect by enhancing cell mediated immunity in chronic myeloid leukemia?

Interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) has been successfully employed in the treatmen t of several hematologic malignancies. IFN-alpha therapy can cause a variet y of long-term side effects such as thyroid dysfunction, development of oth er autoimmune diseases and the isolated appearance of autoantibodies. In th is paper we describe the occurrence of fatal bone marrow aplasia in a patie nt with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) during IFN-alpha treatment.