Local administration of interferon for malignant brain tumors.

We investigated the effects of local administration of interferon (IFN) on 13 patients with recurrent brain tumors. Histologic diagnoses were glioblastoma (eight patients), medulloblastoma (one), ependymoma (one), ependymoblastoma (one), pontine glioma (one), and astrocytoma (one). When tumor recurrence was evident local administration of IFN was started through an Ommaya reservoir, which was placed during repeat craniotomy. No tumor regressions were seen in the patients given weekly injections of IFN; however, in two of six patients given daily injections, a decrease of tumor volume and augmentation of natural killer activity were seen.