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RG Steis, L Marcon, J Clark, W Urba, DL Longo, DL Nelson and AE Maluish
Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD
21701.
Activated T cells synthesize and express a cell membrane-bound receptor for
interleukin-2 (IL-2) and have recently been shown to secrete a soluble form
of the same receptor. Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic disorder caused by
expansion of a clonal population of an unusual mononuclear cell of B cell
origin. These cells have previously been shown to express an IL-2 receptor
on the cell membrane. The sera of 26 patients with hairy cell leukemia were
examined for the presence of a soluble IL-2 receptor before and during
therapy with either recombinant interferon alpha-2a or 2'-deoxycoformycin.
Before therapy, all patients had markedly elevated levels of this soluble
IL-2 receptor ranging from five to 60 times the highest level observed in
normal control sera. In individual patients changes in the level during
therapy correlated well with clinical assessments of tumor response; levels
fell to near the normal range in patients responding to therapy. Patients
not responding to interferon alpha had no significant change in the soluble
IL-2 receptor level. These results suggest that hairy cells secrete a
soluble IL-2 receptor and that serial measurements of the level of this
receptor in the serum can be used as a noninvasive means to assess disease
response to therapy.
This article has been cited by other articles:
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| Copyright © 1988 by American Society of Hematology Online ISSN: 1528-0020 | |||||||||
