Cytokine receptor expression in leukaemic cells

Cytokines have been postulated to play important roles in tumour biology and in the host response to tumours, and a number of therapeutic modalities involving cytokines have been proposed. If patients are to be treated with cytokines, or cytokine inhibitors, it will be important to determine the potential for direct action of the cytokine on the tumour cells. In this study, a high-sensitivity immunofluorescence technique is used to determine the expression of a number of cytokine receptors on a total of 115 leukaemic samples. The results show that many leukaemic samples express low levels of cytokine receptors, and that malignancies of a particular type are heterogeneous with respect to receptor expression. In vitro culture experiments show, as expected, that receptor expression is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for responsiveness to cytokines. The cytokine receptor phenotype may provide useful additional clinical and prognostic information, and should be determined particularly for patients undergoing treatment with cytokines or cytokine inhibitors.