Chemotherapy subsequent to recombinant interleukin-2 immunotherapy: protocol for enhanced tumoricidal activity.

Pretreatment or concurrent use of an immune augmentation substance with a cytotoxic agent could lead to synergistic tumor reduction by drug and immunomodulating agents (i.e. through improvement of in vivo immune function). Our objective in this study was to determine whether the combination of pretreatment with recombinant interleukin-2 (IL-2) followed by chemotherapy (adriamycin) would be a more effective treatment using the Madison 109 malignant tumor model than either drug alone or IL-2 alone. Our results demonstrate that the immune cytolytic function associated with drug treatment is enhanced with pretreatment of IL-2 prior to administration of chemotherapy over a course of several days to animals which have had previously implanted tumor. This combination appears to be a more effective approach than IL-2 or chemotherapy alone.