Limiting dilution analysis of lymphokine-activated killer cell precursor frequencies in peripheral blood lymphocytes of cancer patients receiving interleukin-2 therapy.

Eleven patients receiving weekly cycles of therapy with recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) were evaluated with a sensitive limiting dilution analysis to determine lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell precursor frequencies in peripheral blood lymphocytes. An increase in LAK precursor frequency above baseline was suggested by day 6 of this protocol and was clearly significant by day 20, indicating an expansion of the circulating precursor pool results from in vivo IL-2 administration. Correlations were not significant between LAK precursor frequency during IL-2 therapy and the total number of circulating lymphocytes, the percentage of CD56+ lymphocytes, IL-2 proliferative responses, or LAK activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes, indicating that the precursor frequency identification based on functional testing of individual cells is not accurately reflected by these analyses of heterogeneous bulk populations. Selective cell depletion analyses revealed that the majority of LAK precursors after in vivo IL-2 therapy were cells with the natural killer phenotype. Analysis of LAK precursors may help define the in vivo IL-2 administration, alone or in combination with other hematopoietic or immunodifferentiative cytokines, necessary to further augment in vivo effector cell numbers and activity for patients with cancer.