Question:
My loved one was diagnosed with stage IV Malignant Melanoma over a year ago.He has been through several rounds of Chemo. and the disease is still progressing. He was also treated (unsuccessfully) with Interluken. Do you know of any promising treatments that he should look into at this stage? What are the success rates of these treatments? Where are they offered?
What are side effects? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Answer:
There are 2 experimental treatments for melanoma that has show response after
IL-2 (Interleukin-2) failure.
1) IL-2/LAK (Lymphocyte Activated Killer cells) - These white cells are filtered
for the patients blood injected with IL-2 and re-infused. More recent data in
randomized studies has suggested that IL-2 was effective alone as compared with
IL-2/LAK cells in patients with renal cancer, while patients with melanoma there
was some suggestion that LAK cells improves survival.
2) IL-2/TDAC (Tumor Derived Activated T-cells) - If a tumor can be biopsied, a
patients own T-cell can be culture and expand for reinfused. The difference
between LAK and TDAC is TDAC cells a preprogrammed to recognized tumor cells due
to being already present at the cancer site. LAK cells are considered to be free
floating non-programmed cells.
There are only a few facilities still working with LAK cells. IL-2/TDAC therapy
is still in late stage studies as an additional treatment option for melanoma
and renal cancer.
