[Recent trends in cancer treatment using cytokines].

Recent progress in biotechnology has uncovered the presence of trace substances which participate in the immunological response between cancer and host; They are cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, and immunomodulating agents produced by effector cells which are called macrophage, NK cells and lymphocytes of cancer patients. Recent genetic engineering enables mass production of these substances, and their clinical application in treating human cancers is expected to take place in the near future. In this paper, the recent trend of cancer treatment, using various cytokines are briefly introduced, namely interferon, interleukin-2, tumor necrosis factor and colony stimulating factor. Although IL-2 is effective for the activation of T-lymphocyte, intravenous injection of IL-2 is not so effective for treatment of cancer-patients. On the other hand, IL-2-activated killer cells (LAK cells) are potent effectors of adoptive immunotherapy in advanced cancer patients. The clinical study was conducted in 25 patients with advanced carcinomas. Therapeutic efficacy was obtained in patients for whom local transfer was undertaken rather than systemic administration. Tumor necrosis factor, a cytotoxin derived from macrophages shows much promise for application in cancer therapy because of its marked antitumor effects and its high specificity to tumors. Clinical study was performed on leukemia patients who showed marked decreases of percentage of leukemic cells in peripheral blood. Moreover, local injection of TNF was very effective for the decrease of tumor size in patients with hepatoma and subcutaneous tumor. In addition, to clinical results using CSF and interferon are reported.