[Experimental study on the treatment of human hepatocellular carcinoma by fibroblast-mediated human IFN-alpha gene therapy in combination with adoptive chemoimmunotherapy].

In the present study, we observed the therapeutic effect of the fibroblast-mediated human IFN alpha gene therapy in combination with IL-2/AK/DOX adoptive chemoimmunotherapy on human hepatocellular carcinoma-bearing nude mice. Activated killer cells (AK) were prepared from human peripheral mononuclear cells co-stimulated in vitro with IL-2 and inactivated human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC 7721 cells. The results demonstrated that (1) When the NIH3T3-IFN-alpha+ cells were implanted i.p. to the tumor-bearing nude mice, the growth of tumor was inhibited and the survival time of the mice was prolonged; (2) The growth of tumor was significantly inhibited when AK was injected i.v. and IL-2 was injected i.p. after the NIH3T3-IFN-alpha+ cells had been implanted; (3) The best therapeutic results could be achieved when NIH3T3-IFN-alpha+ cells were used in combination with IL-2/AK/DOX. All these results suggeste that the fibroblast-mediated human IFN-alpha gene therapy could be used to treat human hepatocellular carcinoma but better results can be obtained when used in combination with IL-2-based immunotherapy.