Cytokine profile of tumor cells in mycosis fungoides: successful treatment with intra-lesional interferon-gamma combined with chemotherapy.

Two cases of mycosis fungoides (MF) in the tumor stage were treated with intra-lesional interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) therapy. After systemic chemotherapy, intra-lesional recombinant interferon-gamma was applied to the residual tumors. Intra-lesional IFN-gamma was sufficiently effective in the treatment of MF tumors, especially small-sized ones. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of messenger RNA expression of cytokines commonly detected interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IFN-gamma in the tumor cells before intra-lesional IFN-gamma. However, in our study, tumor cells in these cases did not exhibit the definitive cytokine patterns of Th1 or Th2.