Cytokine therapy of neoplastic and inflammatory disease.

Cytokines have been widely tested in clinical trials during recent years and beneficial responses have been observed in a variety of malignant, infectious and autoimmune diseases. Interferon-alpha induces remissions in patients with certain hematological malignancies such as hairy cell leukemia and chronic myelogenous leukemia. A proportion of patients with chronic viral hepatitis is cured upon application of interferon-alpha. Treatment with interferon-gamma reduces the number of infections in patients with chronic granulomatous disease. In addition, several chronic infections with intracellular pathogens also respond to treatment with this cytokine. With the exception of some patients with renal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma, solid tumors are largely resistant to administration of these cytokines. Cytokine treatment has changed the outlook for a small group of patients with selected chronic diseases. However, clinical experience with cytokines is still limited and only interferons have been tested for treatment of a variety of diseases. Thus, it seems reasonable to expect that more cytokine-responsive diseases might be identified by continued research efforts.