IL-2 activated cell-mediated immunotherapy: control of minimal residual disease in malignant disorders by allogeneic lymphocytes and IL-2.

The present experiments were designed to investigate whether it might be possible to combine their therapeutic benefits of autologous BMT and allogeneic BMT following administration of T-lymphocyte depleted marrow allografts with additional immunotherapy following BMT. The tumor model used for investigating graft vs leukemia (GVL) effects was the murine B-cell leukemia (BCL1), a spontaneous, nonimmunogenic, highly lethal leukemia of BALB/c origin. Immunotherapy with high dose recombinant human interleukin-2 (IL2) (10(5) Cetus units x 3/day intraperitoneally (IP) for 5 days) produced significant anti-tumor effects in BCL1-bearing mice. BALB/c mice inoculated with 10(3) BCL1 leukemia cells received were treated on day -1 with cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg and transplanted with normal syngenic BM cells on day 0. High-dose IL2 (100,000 Cetus Units x 3/day IP x 5 consecutive days) was initiated on day +1, +7, or +21 following BMT. Optimal time for administration of IL2 was noted at 3 weeks post-BMT with 90% of the mice surviving with no evidence of disease greater than 1 year. An experimental model designed to study GVL effects in a state of minimal residual disease following T-cell depleted allogeneic BMT indicated that mice receiving low dose of BCL1 challenge (10(4] were successfully treated by either IL2 (2 x 10(4) Cetus units x 2/day IP x 3 days), allogeneic spleen cells (10(6) on day +1, 10(7) on day +5 and 5 x 10(7) on day +9) alone and certainly following a combination of both.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)