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Published on: March 25, 2016
Low-dose recombinant IL-2 induces psychological changes: monitoring by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Claudia Pizzi1, Michele Caraglia, Maria Cianciulli
1Dipartimento di Endocrinologia e Oncologia Sperimentale e Clinica, Università degli Studi Federico II, Naples, Italy.
Background:
Chronic subcutaneous rIL-2 at low doses produces long-lasting immunomodulatory effects and is considered an effective treatment for renal cell carcinoma with marginal activity in malignant melanoma and colorectal cancer.
Patients And Methods:
In this study we evaluated, by Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the psychological changes induced by rIL-2 in 10 patients with advanced tumors.
Results:
After 3 months of rIL-2 treatment, 80% of the patients had a significantly increased score on the clinical scale of depression (D) and psychasthenia (Pt) (p<0.01), 70% on the scale of conversion hysteria (Hy) and 60% on the scales of schizophrenia (Sc) and psychopathic deviate (Pd), (p<0.05). These MMPI changes were however not paralleled by disease progression or clinical-overt psychological disease.
Conclusion:
These findings demonstrate that low-dose rIL-2 is a psychoactive treatment, which deserves psychological monitoring The MMPI is feasible for the evaluation of subclinical psychological modifications induced by cytokine immunotherapy.
