Interferon and chronic myelogenous leukaemia.

Interferon (IFN) is widely employed in the therapy of chronic myelogenous leukaemia because of its ability to exert the antiproliferative activity on leukaemic haematopoietic progenitors and for the expression for IFN-alpha receptors by peripheral blood leukaemic cell surfaces. There is no difference between recombinant IFN alpha 2b and alpha 2a regarding their efficacy in the treatment of Ph-positive CML patients. Either no randomized studies or the randomized ones show a superior effectiveness of IFN given as single agent in the induction treatment to that one of chemotherapy regarding the complete cytogenic response percentage. The ability of IFN-gamma to induce the expression of adhesion molecules such LFA 1 and ICAM 1 on peripheral blood leukaemic cell surfaces may suggest its use in the induction therapy of CML patients. Other than, a superior effectiveness of combined therapy including interferon and chemotherapy agents compared to chemotherapy alone has also been found. Finally no large series of trials to study the IFN efficacy both as second line treatment and maintenance therapy have been carried out.