S-phase induction by interleukin-6 followed by chemotherapy in patients with refractory multiple myeloma
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The plasma cell labeling index (PCLI) in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) is relatively low and this has been associated with the low rate of remission following chemotherapy. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been demonstrated to be a major growth factor of myeloma cells. In order to increase the S-phase proportion of myeloma cells, which might increase the sensitivity to chemotherapy, we gave rhIL-6 followed by chemotherapy to 15 myeloma patients with refractory disease. A total of 25 treatment cycles were administered since ten patients had two cycles. The rhIL-6 dose was 2.5 (n = 3), 5.0 (n = 6) and 10.0 microg/kg (n = 6) by subcutaneous injection once daily for 5 days and chemotherapy was administered on the last day of rhIL-6 injection. The effect of rhIL-6 treatment on labeling index (LI) was heterogeneous, but no statistically significant change was noted for this particular group as a whole. In two patients an increase (mean 7.7%) in LI of mononuclear bone marrow cells during the rhIL-6 treatment was demonstrated and in one patient a decrease of 2.8% was seen. Assessment of PCLI demonstrated an increase of 2.9% in one out of six patients and a decrease of 1.9% in one out of six patients. None of the 15 patients achieved remission according to standard criteria. During the rhIL-6 treatment, 14 of the 15 patients developed mild constitutional adverse events (AE) well known in patients treated with IL-6, and none of the AE in the subsequent chemotherapy phase were related to IL-6. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that rhIL-6 can be administered safely to patients with refractory MM, but the cell cycle recruitment approach was not sufficiently effective to be of clinical value.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Leukemia Research |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 11 |
Pages (from-to) | 983-9 |
Number of pages | 7 |
ISSN | 0145-2126 |
Publication status | Published - Nov 1998 |
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Antineoplastic Agents, Cell Count, Female, Humans, Injections, Subcutaneous, Interleukin-6, Male, Middle Aged, Multiple Myeloma, Plasma Cells, Recombinant Proteins, Remission Induction, S Phase, Clinical Trial, Clinical Trial, Phase I, Clinical Trial, Phase II, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research areas
ID: 181873866