Interferon therapy for neoplastic diseases in man in vitro and in vivo studies

With the object of examining the anti-tumour effect of exogenous interferon therapy in man a research programme has been initiated at the Karolinska Hospital. Established cell lines obtained from patients with Burkitt's and other types of lymphoma, leukaemia, osteosarcoma, mammary carcinoma and fibrosarcoma and from fibroblast cultures displayed a variable sensitivity to the cell multiplication inhibitory activity of interferon. All the monolayer cultures tested were found to be sensitive to interferon at concentrations between 10 and 300 units/ml. Some lymphoma cell lines were not sensitive to interferon even at concentrations as high as 10.000 units/ml, while others were sensitive at concentrations between 2 and 300 units/ml. The interferons tested appeared to show a degree of tissue specificity. Controlled studies in vivo are being performed on osteosarcoma, juvenile papilloma of the larynx, multiple myeloma and small-cell carcinoma of the lung. The clinical results of this research obtained to date, together with the results obtained in model experiments, would appear to warrant accelerated production of human interferon.