Interferon and multiple myeloma.

In vivo and in vitro studies are used to investigate interferon's use treating human multiple myeloma. In vitro studies demonstrate that the production of monoclonal immunoglobulin by myeloma plasma cells is reduced by alpha interferon; furthermore, interferon alpha seems to inhibit myeloma cell lines development. In vivo studies using interferon in the treatment of multiple myeloma experimentally reproduced in mice show low percentages of mortality among mice treated with high doses of interferon as opposed to high mortality among those treated with low doses. Clinical trials to evaluate the interferon efficacy in the treatment of human multiple myeloma demonstrate that the therapy of previously untreated patients using interferon is not useful because the response rate is lower than that of chemotherapy. There is no homogeneity of results of combined chemotherapy plus interferon as induction treatment of previously untreated patients. Homogeneous results are also not obtained using interferon alone or in combination with chemotherapy as a second induction treatment of relapsed patients. However, interferon seems to be effective as maintenance therapy of a response obtained with previous chemotherapy.