Interleukin-2 and interleukin-4 display potent antitumour activity on rat medullary thyroid carcinoma cells

• Published in: European journal of cancer (1990) Vol. 31; no. 13; pp. 2379 - 2384
• Main Authors: Cressent, M., Pidoux, E., Cohen, R., Modigliani, E., Roth, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.1995
• Subjects: Animals; Antigens, Neoplasm - analysis; Carcinoma, Medullary - immunology; Carcinoma, Medullary - therapy; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Drug Therapy, Combination; Female; IL-2; IL-4; Interleukin-2 - therapeutic use; Interleukin-4 - therapeutic use; Mice; MTC cells; Rats; Thyroid Neoplasms - immunology; Thyroid Neoplasms - therapy; transduced xenogeneic cells; Transplantation, Heterologous; tumour growth inhibition; IL-4; IL-2; MTC cells; transduced xenogeneic cells; tumour growth inhibition
• ISSN: 0959-8049; 1879-0852
• DOI: 10.1016/0959-8049(95)00445-9

Currently, surgical resection is the only treatment used for human medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). However, as metastases are commonly observed, we investigated the potential of adjuvant therapy with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) in a rat model. The interleukins were delivered by means of xenogeneic tumour cells engineered to secrete IL-2 and IL-4. We found that when a mixture of MTC cells and IL-2 or IL-4 secreting cells were implanted in rats, the growth of the resulting tumours was inhibited as a function of the number of interleukinsecreting cells in the inoculum. Moreover, association of the two interleukins exerted a synergistic antitumour effect. These experimental results, showing thyroid C cell tumour rejection, are of major interest, as they show the potential therapeutic application for these two interleukins, which could be used, in particular, as postsurgical adjuvants.