Human leukocyte interferon alpha (HLI-alpha) for treatment of pleural effusion caused by non small cell lung cancer....

Fourteen patients with ipsilateral pleural effusion from non small cell cancer of the lung, 10 of them with generalized metastasis, were treated with local application of HLI-alpha in addition to other symptomatic treatment. Cytology of pleural fluid at the beginning of treatment yielded cancer cells in all but one. HLI-alpha, 2 x 10(6) International Units (I.U.) diluted in 20 ml of distilled water was injected intrapleurally each time. The mean survival of the HLI-alpha treated patients, measured from the first treatment of the pleural effusion, was 10.8 months. The performance status improved in 9 patients following HLI-alpha treatment. The pleural effusion eventually ceased accumulating in all patients. To judge from cytology of tapped pleural fluid, the cancer cells disappeared during treatment with HLI-alpha in 11 patients.