Conservative treatment of hemangiomas in infancy and childhood with interferon-alpha 2a.

Hemangioma is the most common tumor of infancy. Most hemangiomas proliferate for 8 to 18 months and then slowly regress over the next 5 to 8 years. So far, steroids have been the established means of treatment, but there have been some reports of the use of interferon-alpha 2a (IFN-A2a) in such tumors. To evaluate the efficacy of IFN-A2a in treating giant hemangiomas in infancy and childhood, we administered it to ten patients aged 4 h to 6.5 years with life-threatening hemangiomas in various parts of the body. The dose used was 3 MU/m2 body surface area subcutaneously every second day. All children had previously received corticosteroids for 2 to 5 weeks without obvious success. The results were satisfactory: five patients had total or almost total regression; the rest have had partial regression while treatment is still in progress. A flu-like syndrome with fever, rhinitis, etc. accompanied the injections in some patients. The symptoms were controlled with paracetamol as necessary. Mild, transient leukopenia occurred in some children as well, but subsided after cessation of therapy for 1 week. IFN-A2a appears to be a promising and well-tolerated element in the treatment of life-threatening hemangiomas in infancy and childhood.