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Immunopathological features of human pulmonary tumors following low-dose interleukin-2

S G Swisher1, T M Anderson, D R Wen

  • 1Division of Surgical Oncology, John Wayne Cancer Clinic, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA School of Medicine 90024.

We administered preoperative low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) to 10 patients undergoing thoracotomy for pulmonary tumors. The in vivo effect of IL-2 on tumor-associated lymphocyte activity was assessed in the resected specimens by immunohistochemistry and compared with observations in 45 patients who did not receive IL-2. H & E evaluation revealed an increase in intra- and peritumoral lymphocyte infiltration in the IL-2-treated patients. Immunopathological evaluation with monoclonal antibodies revealed that this lymphocyte infiltration was predominantly CD5-positive T cells. The amount of intra- and peritumoral lymphocyte activity correlated with the dose of IL-2 administered (6000-90,000 international units/kg every 8 h for 48 h. IL-2-treated patients showed increases in T-cell-associated activation markers (IL-2 alpha-receptor, transferrin receptor and HLA-DR) on peritumoral lymphocytes, but not on intratumoral lymphocytes. We previously reported that low-dose IL-2 increases the intrinsic natural killer cell cytotoxicity of intratumoral lymphocytes and suggest that this lymphocyte infiltration is further evidence that low-dose IL-2 can augment in vivo lymphocyte activity at the tumor site.

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