Neutralising antibodies to granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in carcinoma patients following GM-CSF combination therapy.

There is a high risk of developing neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibodies when GM-CSF is used as an immunomodulatory agent in non-immune compromised patients and not in combination with chemotherapy. The presence of neutralizing antibodies may seriously hamper the clinical response of the patients this must be taken into account when designing protocols if the biological activity of the exogenously administered GM-CSF is not to be impaired and the endogenous production of GM-CSF is not to be inactivated. Assessment of production of neutralising antibodies during cytokine therapy is important for predicting the clinical response to progressive therapy.