
Clinical Cancer Research Vol. 6, 3895-3903, October 2000
© 2000 American Association for Cancer Research
Unexpected Cytokines in Serum of Malignant Melanoma Patients during Sequential Biochemotherapy1
Elizabeth A. Grimm2,
Christine M. Smid,
J. Jack Lee,
Chi-Hong Tseng,
Omar Eton and
Antonio C. Buzaid
Departments of Cancer Biology [E. A. G., C. M. S.], Melanoma and Sarcoma Medical Oncology [O. E.], and Biostatistics [C-H. T., J. J. L.], University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Texas 77030, and Centro de Oncologia, Hospital Sirio-Libanes, Sao Paulo 01308-050, Brazil [A. C. B.]
 |
ABSTRACT
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Biochemotherapy,
which combines traditional chemotherapy with immune modulating
biologicals, produces an unexpectedly high response rate (>50%) in
advanced melanoma patients. We hypothesize that immunological
mechanism(s) are responsible for the increased response rate, and
particularly that macrophage activation is involved in tumor reduction.
Patients were randomized to receive chemotherapy, composed of
cisplatin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (CVD), or biochemotherapy,
which is CVD followed by interleukin (IL)-2 and IFN-
2b (CVD-BIO).
Laboratory analysis was performed on sera from 41 patients from each
arm. Measurements of macrophage activation (neopterin), nitric oxide
production (nitrite), and tumor necrosis factor-
(TNF-
), IL-1
,
IL-1ß, IFN-
, IL-6, IL-10, and soluble IL-2 receptor (sIL-2R) were
performed. Six of the nine biological responses (nitrite, neopterin,
IFN-
, IL-6, soluble IL-2R, and IL-10) significantly
(P < 0.0002) increased in the CVD-BIO patients but
not in the CVD patients. The increased IL-6 (P =
0.04) and IL-10 (P = 0.05) correlated with patient
response, but only when the minor responders were included in the
analysis. Evidence of macrophage activation was found in CVD-BIO
patients and not in those receiving CVD alone. In addition, an unusual
cytokine elaboration composed of IL-6, IFN-
, IL-10, nitrite,
neopterin, and sIL-2R, but not the expected TNF-
and IL-1, was
detected. A trend of higher increase in IL-6 and IL-10 in patients
having clinical response was found, suggesting an incomplete Th2
pattern of cytokine elaboration. These data show that macrophage
activation does not appear to be critical in the response to CVD-BIO,
but that IL-10 and IL-6 induced by the BIO component of the CVD-BIO
were associated with tumor regression, and that their biology should be
pursued further in the analysis of mechanism(s) of response.
 |
INTRODUCTION
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Progress toward the treatment of patients with advanced metastatic
melanoma has been suggested by the recent results from several
biochemotherapy trials in which the response rates in the 5060%
range were reported, after treatment with cisplatin-based chemotherapy
combined with IL3
-2
based immunotherapy (1, 2, 3)
. Previously, immunologists
commonly considered standard chemotherapies to be immunosuppressive and
believed that their use would inhibit immunotherapeutic attempts. The
outdated assumption of chemotherapy and immunotherapy as counteracting
treatments is now being replaced by a new paradigm of a combined
treatment involving synergistic interactions through as yet
unidentified mechanism(s). Various sequences of administration of these
combined modalities have been tested previously at our institution, and
the administration of chemotherapy prior to immunotherapy or concurrent
with immunotherapy appears more effective than when the immunotherapy
was given first (4
, 5)
.
Several research groups have examined parameters of biological
responses during biochemotherapy. Evidence of T-cell activation, by the
detection of high levels of sIL-2R shed into sera, was reported by
Mouawad et al. (6)
. Not only were T cells
activated in all patients, but also there was a correlation between the
elevated sIL-2R and the clinical response (6)
. Mouawads
group reported recently a negative correlation between IL-6 levels in
pretherapy serum and response to biochemotherapy (7)
. Our
laboratory reported previously a borderline significance of increased
nitrite levels with patient response during a concurrent
biochemotherapy trial in 45 stage III patients, suggesting that nitric
oxide production may be involved in effective therapy (8
, 9)
. From a separate report on 16 of these patients for whom
pretherapy lymphocytes were obtained, an in vitro test for
the cisplatin-induced DNA damage was found to provide correlation with
biochemotherapy clinical responses (P = 0.00070.024,
depending on cisplatin dosage), thereby suggesting a potential tool for
predicting response to biochemotherapy (10)
.
Taken together, existing preliminary data suggest the hypothesis that a
heterogeneous set of biological factors, initiated by higher
susceptibility to DNA damage from the initial chemotherapy and then
involving immune products from subsets of biotherapy-activated
macrophages and T cells, is involved with clinical response. Whether
these factors represent secondary events or direct factors in the
mechanism of response currently remains unknown. Therefore, to more
clearly define biological events unique to the biotherapy (BIO)
component of the biochemotherapy, we performed the current study using
patient material from a randomized trial that consisted of a larger
number of stage IV melanoma patients than used in earlier reports.
Patients were recruited from a clinical trial in which randomization
was to either chemotherapy alone (CVD) or biochemotherapy, therefore
permitting analysis of data concerning the contribution of BIO
components in the setting of biochemotherapy. On the basis of our
earlier nitrite data, we hypothesized that macrophages were likely to
be involved in tumor destruction; therefore, the measurement of markers
of macrophage activation was considered a priority. We further
asked whether the chemotherapy would inhibit any of the well-known
biological responses in response to IL-2 or IFN-
, such as the IL-1s
and TNF, and for any systemic biological responses that did occur,
whether serum levels correlated with clinical response or survival.
 |
PATIENTS AND METHODS
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Patient Treatment/Sample Collection.
As part of an institutionally approved clinical trial in accord
with assurance filed with and approved by the United States Department
of Health and Human Services, stage IV melanoma patients who had
received no prior systemic therapy, were randomized to receive either
chemotherapy alone or sequential biochemotherapy (CVD-BIO). The
clinical protocol is currently still accruing the last of the 200
intended patients. Sera collected from the first 82 evaluable patients
were used in this research. All patients provided written consent for
multiple blood samples. Of these, 41 had been randomized to CVD only
and 41 to CVD-BIO. The CVD for both groups consisted of 20
mg/m2
i.v. cisplatin on days 14, 1.5
mg/m2
i.v. vinblastine on days 14, and 800
mg/m2
i.v. dacarbazine on day 1. The sequential
biochemotherapy regime consisted of CVD, followed by 9 x
106 IU/m2
continuous
infusion IL-2 (Cetus-Chiron) on days 59 and 5 x 106
units/m2
IFN-
2b (Roferon-A) by s.c. injection, also on
days 59 of the first cycle. Both biologicals were repeated on days
1620. The scheme for the treatment protocol and blood draws is
described in Fig. 1
. All patients had
blood samples drawn prior to initiation of the therapy and then on days
5, 6, and 9. These particular days for sera collection were selected as
pretherapy; day 5, which was the last day of chemotherapy; day 6, the
first of biological therapy; and day 9, which was the last day of
biological therapy. In a previous biochemotherapy trial studied by us,
the peak nitrite levels were found on day 5 (8)
, so that
we intended that the most critical biological correlated would occur
prior to day 9. Blood was collected into red-top Vacutainer tubes.
Within 2 h of collection, the tubes containing the clotted blood
were centrifuged, and patient serum was aspirated, aliquoted, and
frozen at -80°C for later analysis.
Evaluation of clinical response was measured in all patients on day 42
and was required to last at least 1 month. Standard response criteria
were used: a CR was indicated by no clinical evidence of any residual
tumor; a PR was indicated by >50% decrease in the sum of the products
of the greatest perpendicular diameters of measurable lesions; we also
noted MRs for biological analysis purposes, which were indicated by
<50% tumor shrinkage but >25%; SD was indicated by
25% shrinkage
or no change; and PD was indicated by an increase in tumor size. The
details of the patient characteristics and clinical results for the
entire trial were recently presented and published (11)
.
ELISA for Cytokines and IL-2R Levels.
All ELISA kits were purchased from Endogen (Woburn, MA); the
manufacturers protocol was followed for determining the IL-1
,
IL-1ß, TNF-
, IL-6, IL-10, IFN-
, and IL-2R levels, and all tests
were performed in triplicate. Briefly, standards and samples were
plated into 96-well plates precoated with capture antibody. A
biotinylated antibody was added to the wells, and the plate was
incubated for 2 h at room temperature. After the incubation, the
plate was washed three times with wash buffer. Streptavidin-horseradish
peroxidase was then added to the wells, and the plates incubated for 30
min at room temperature, followed by three washes. The premixed
substrate solution was then added to the wells, and the plate was
developed in the dark for 30 min at room temperature. Once the plate
controls had developed, a stop solution was added to the reaction
mixture, and the absorbance was read on a DYNEX plate reader at 450 nm
with a reference of 550 nm. The mean values at each time point were
then used directly for the analysis reported. The normal range values
for each cytokine were obtained from Endogen and are indicated in the
figure legends. It is important to note that the antibody pairs for the
Endogen IL-6 ELISA are known to measure only the
Mr 30,000 functional form of this
molecule, not any of the numerous inactive chaperoned forms of this
cytokine.
Nitrite Measurements by the Greiss Assay.
Serum nitrite, produced via reduction of nitrate, has often been used
as a surrogate marker for nitric oxide (NO) production. The total level
of the oxidation product nitrite (NO2) in the
patient serum was determined at each time point using the Griess
reaction (12
, 13)
. The Griess assay measures nitrite only;
therefore, all nitrate, considered the more stable form in human sera,
was enzymatically converted to nitrite by the addition of nitrate
reductase to all samples, as reported previously from this laboratory
(8)
. In brief, the Griess reaction assay used a standard
curve consisting of 400, 200, 100, 50, 25, 12.5, and 0 µM
NaNO2. Five µl of 30%
ZnSO4 in H2O were added to
100 µl of all standards and samples in Eppendorf tubes. The tubes
were then centrifuged in an Eppendorf microcentrifuge at 14,000 rpm for
12 min. An aliquot of the supernatant (56 µl) was transferred to a
fresh tube, and 62 µl of Escherichia coli nitrate
reductase was added to the aliquot and mixed and then incubated for
1.5 h at 37°C. Again, the samples were centrifuged for 5 min at
12,000 rpm. Eighty µl of the supernatant were transferred to a
96-well plate, and then 80 µl of Griess reagent (1% sulfanilamide,
0.1% N-(1-naphthyl)ethylenediamine dihydrochloride,
and 2.5% H3PO4) were added
to each well. The plate was incubated for 10 min at room temperature
and then read on a DYNEX spectrophotometer at 540 nm.
NO2 levels were extrapolated from a standard
curve included in each days assay.
Neopterin Determination.
A neopterin RIA kit (IBL, Hamburg, Germany) was used to measure serum
neopterin levels, considered unique and indicative of macrophage
activation (8)
. In brief, standards, samples (in
triplicate), or controls were mixed with 125I
tracer. The solid-phase reagent was added to all samples, which were
then incubated for 30 min at 37°C. After a 10-min wash at room
temperature, the samples were centrifuged for 10 min at 3000 x
g. The supernatant was decanted, and the radioactivity was
counted for 1 min on a gamma counter. Sample values were calculated
from the standard curve generated during the assay.
Statistical Analysis.
All ELISA and Griess reaction data were initially expressed as
mean ± SE of triplicate values. Repeated measures ANOVA was used
to compare data for each marker as changes over time and also response
over time. F test was then used for determination of
significance levels. The test for correlation of dependence between
IL-6 and IL-10 were performed using Pearson correlation statistics. All
tests reported here were two-sided tests. The Cox regression model was
used for comparison of survival with responses in the CVD-BIO group. A
two-sided P
0.05 was considered statistically
significant.
 |
RESULTS
|
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Of the 41 patients randomized to receive CVD-BIO, 21 (51%)
demonstrated an objective clinical response (CR + PR). Of the 41
patients randomized to receive CVD alone, 9 (22%) demonstrated a CR or
PR (Table 1)
. The major response rate in
the CVD-BIO group was significantly higher than the response rate in
the CVD group (P = 0.008,
2
test). Because we found no marker of biological response correlating
with clinical response using the above standard definitions (response
to include only CR and PR), we then included patients with minor
clinical responses as biological "responders" based on a 2550%
regression of tumor that could be considered as important biologically,
although not as important clinically. Using this modified definition,
there were 26 responders to biotherapy (63%), and to chemotherapy
there were 13 (32%). Addition of BIO to the CVD for advanced melanoma
patients appears to double the response rate.
High response rates are not necessarily indicative of prolonged
survival. Using the Cox regression, response was found to significantly
correlate with survival (P = 0.0002). At the time of
this writing, 8 patients who received CVD-BIO were alive compared with
only 4 of those who received only CVD. Therefore, it appears that the
mechanism of the increased response as measured at 42 days in this
study may also be part of a mechanism that leads to long-term survival.
Biological Responses Observed in Sera from Patients Receiving IL-2
and IFN-
after Chemotherapy but not after Chemotherapy Alone.
Laboratory measurements for nine serum biological markers were
performed on available patient sera. The most common IL-2-driven
secondary cytokines, TNF-
, IL-1
, and IL-1ß, were found not to
increase at all in either treatment group. Analysis of the levels of
each of those cytokines was stopped after 40, 42, and 37 patients,
respectively, to conserve sera. The results of laboratory values were
within normal levels at all time points. For IL-1 and TNF, no
significant increase or decrease was evident (Fig. 2)
from either arm of
the study, although CVD-BIO patients with detectable IL-1
values at
baseline did have a substantial decrease in these during therapy
(12.11.9 pg/ml), which did not occur in the CVD alone patients. This
absence of Th1 cytokines was very unexpected as TNF-
elaboration
into sera has been considered a hallmark of IL-2 infusion (14
, 15)
. The other six biologicals (neopterin, nitrite, IFN-
,
sIL-2R, IL-6, and IL-10) all increased significantly over time in the
CVD-BIO patient sera (P < 0.0002), as compared with
that in the CVD-alone group (Fig. 2
and Table 2
). Not all tests were performed on all
patients at all time points because of a lack of serum in some cases
and unavailability of neopterin measurement kits in other instances.
Sporadic elevation of IFN-
was noted in a few patients in the
CVD-alone group (Fig. 2
F), but these values had no
statistical significance or correlation with response. Overall, each of
these six biological markers were still increasing in value on the last
day (day 9) of serum collection, and it was unfortunate that samples
were not planned for later times.


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Fig. 2. Cytokine and other tumor marker levels from all
patients on all days. A, TNF- levels measured by
ELISA. B, IL-1 . C, IL-1ß, also by
ELISA. D, IL-6. E, IL-10.
F, IFN- levels measured by ELISA. G,
sIL-2R. H, neopterin levels measured by RIA.
I, nitrite levels measured by Griess reaction.
Left column, levels from the CVD-BIO patients;
right column, levels from the CVD patients.
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Table 2 %Significant increases of biological responses in
the CVD-BIO arm versus CVD-only arm
Data above are given as the mean of each marker measured ± SE for
day 0 (pretherapy) and day 9 (last day of biologic). All values are in
pg/ml except for neopterin, which is ng/ml, and nitrite, which is in
µM. The two-sided P is calculated using data
from all days using ANOVA.
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Increased IL-6 and IL-10 Levels in Serum of Patients in the CVD-BIO
Group Tend to Correlate with Clinical Responses.
Using a repeated measures ANOVA model, we asked whether any of the six
biologicals that increased in sera of patients receiving CVD-BIO, but
not in the CVD-alone patients, correlated to patient clinical response.
Using the standard definition of CR + PR patients as "responders,"
no significant correlation of any marker with clinical response was
detected. However, when we added the data from the 4 CVD and 5 CVD-BIO
patients in the MR category to our analysis, weak correlation of
clinical response with the increased values of IL-6 on day 6
(P = 0.04), and a trend of increased IL-10 on days 5
(P = 0.05) and 6 (P = 0.07), was
observed (Table 3)
. The day-9 values for
all markers increased in all of the CVD-BIO patients, and the
statistically significant association with clinical response at this
later time was lost, because of higher variability of the data
obtained.
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Table 3 %Test for correlation of increased biological
markers with the biochemotherapy patient clinical response
The data for each cytokine on each day were tested for correlation with
response using ANOVA and the F test table.
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Codependence of IL-6 and IL-10.
To determine whether the increases in IL-6 and IL-10 levels were
dependent on each other, a Pearson correlation coefficient was computed
for the IL-6 and IL-10 individual patient mean values at the different
time points (Fig. 3)
. Significant
correlation of increase of both interleukin with each other was found,
suggesting a dependent or common regulatory mechanism for their
regulation. This was significant for all CVD-BIO patients, irrespective
of clinical response status. No increased IL-6 or IL-10 was found in
the CVD; therefore, no codependency was tested.

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Fig. 3. Correlation of IL-6 with IL-10. Correlation was
found to be highly significant on day 9. ELISA data from all CVD-BIO
patients were used to perform a test for dependency of these two
parameters. The Pearson correlation method indicated that IL-6 and
IL-10 do correlate with each other on the days shown.
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Pretherapy Values for IL-10 Are Slightly Higher in Patients
Responding to CVD-BIO.
Using data of normal range values available for IFN-
, IL-1
, IL-6,
IL-10, and sIL-2R, we had observed previously that melanoma patients
often present with abnormally high baseline IL-1
levels in their
sera. To pursue the possible significance of increased baseline levels
in the larger number of CVD-BIO patients in this protocol, as well as
to investigate whether abnormally high levels were prognostic, all
pretherapy values for the CVD-BIO patients were categorized as normal
or above normal and were correlated with clinical response (Table 3)
.
Using the Fishers exact test, CVD-BIO patients with abnormally high
pretherapy values for IL-1
were almost equally distributed in the
responders and nonresponders, and the distribution of pretherapy values
was also similar in the responders and nonresponders (Table 4)
. A trend of higher pretherapy IL-10
levels was observed in responders (P = 0.06). Clearly,
more study is needed to determine whether this high IL-10 is
attributable to a genetic predisposition for higher secretion
(16
, 17)
or to tumor production (18)
. IL-10
levels prior to treatment in those patients randomized to CVD alone had
no correlation with response, for instance the highest pretherapy IL-10
from the CVD patients were in the PD group, and some of the lowest were
in the PR group (data not shown). Therefore, existing IL-10 in sera
does not appear to influence the CVD response but may slightly
influence the CVD-BIO. Melanoma is extremely heterogeneous with respect
to various treatment responses; therefore, it would not be surprising
that different response mechanism(s) function in different patients.
The pretherapy IL-6 and sIL-2R were more similar to normal values than
the other cytokines.
 |
DISCUSSION
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In general, melanoma is considered an immunologically responsive
tumor, with
15% of all patients reported to respond to either IFN
or IL-2 alone therapy (19)
. Durable CRs are observed in
5% of the patients treated with moderate to high doses of IL-2
alone (18
, 19)
. Although chemotherapy alone produces
higher overall response rates compared with IL-2 alone, durable CRs are
rare (1.5%). The recent suggestions of successful combination of these
two treatment modalities, referred to as biochemotherapy or
chemoimmunotherapy, has provided a most intriguing possibility for
improving melanoma therapy, as well as to reveal more generalized
mechanisms of antitumor host responses.
Prior to the laboratory analysis of patients on this randomized
protocol, our early study of mechanisms of response to biochemotherapy
mechanisms suggested that macrophages might be activated via a Th1
cytokine network to regulate tumor growth. On the basis of the
hypothesis that Th1 cytokines are likely to lead to productive
antitumor immune responses, we asked whether such responses could be
detected systemically. Therefore, our analytical studies were designed
to critically evaluate the activation of Th1 markers TNF-
, IL-1
,
IL-1ß, and IFN-
, all known to activate macrophages. Macrophage
activation was measured by several means, the most specific by
quantifying neopterin in the sera (8)
. Macrophage
activation is also associated with products of reactive nitrogen
species, NO, which in the human is more often considered a product of
endothelial cells or even tumor cells themselves (8)
. A
macrophage cytokine product, IL-6, was also included in the analysis.
T-cell activation was evaluated by measuring by soluble IL-2R shedding.
Although our new data continue to support macrophage involvement as
increased in nitrite and neopterin, we observed no direct evidence that
clinical response was related to higher levels of this known group of
macrophage-specific products, as suggested in earlier work
(8)
. In addition, the primary macrophage-activating
cytokines (IL-1 and TNF) were not increased; in fact, neither of these
expected cytokines (14
, 15)
was found above background.
Therefore, a role of Th1 cytokine elaboration and macrophage activation
is no longer considered by us to be a likely primary mechanism
regulating antitumor responses during CVD-BIO.
Evidence of systemic activation of T cells is based on the six other
markers and cytokines that were up-regulated during CVD-BIO but not
during CVD alone, with increased IL-6 and IL-10 being the only ones to
correlate significantly with clinical response. Although these two
cytokines can be produced by T cells as well as many other cell types,
we have noted that both of these cytokines can be present in the
cytoplasm of biopsied samples of melanoma cells, along with IL-1
or
IL-1ß (20
, 21)
. IL-10, and under many circumstances
IL-6, can be constitutively secreted from melanoma tumors (20
, 21)
, suggesting the possibility that these two cytokines could
be released into sera merely as a result of tumor destruction.
Additional studies, which include analysis of tumor biopsies during
therapy, are needed to fully understand the extent of these cytokines
and their role in tumor destruction.
IL-10, originally named cytokine synthesis inhibitory factor, was
recognized for inhibiting production of IL-1, IL-2, TNF, IFN-
, and
other Th1 cytokines and is known to divert immune responses to
Th2-mediated ones (22, 23, 24, 25)
. IL-10 protein has been found
to constitutively be expressed at greater than normal levels in the
serum of many cancer patients, including those with melanoma
(25, 26, 27, 28)
. IL-10 has been appreciated as an
immunosuppressive factor produced by numerous tumor cell types, but
conflicting evidence of IL-10 producing antitumor effects is also noted
(28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
. It was demonstrated through the use of IL-10 KO
mice that tumor-induced IL-10 can block the generation of
Th1-dependent, antigen-specific response (33)
, which is
consistent with our observations of the absence of Th1 cytokine
expression. In addition, IL-10 has also been proposed as an autocrine
growth factor for melanoma (33)
. Therefore, we were not
surprised that many of our melanoma patients presented with above
normal IL-10 levels in their sera (normal range, up to 14 pg/ml in
Endogen ELISA). We were, however, extremely surprised by the 100-fold
higher levels of IL-10 in responding patients sera during the actual
biochemotherapy treatment. In contrast to the well-accepted
immunosuppressive role of IL-10, experimental tumor model literature
indicates that IL-10 provides substantial antitumor effects
(28, 29, 30, 31
, 34, 35, 36, 37)
. Recent murine studies implicate the
induction of IFN-
in the mechanism of effective antitumor therapy
(38)
. We did find up-regulation of human IFN-
in all
CVD-BIO patients. Another murine study reported that systemic
administration of IL-10 not only resulted in rejection of established
melanoma tumors, but the cured mice were resistant to lethal challenge
(39)
. Supported by these mouse models, we now propose the
hypothesis that IL-10, under selected circumstances, is involved in
successful human melanoma rejection induced by biochemotherapy,
possibly via suppressing a Th1 cytokine cascade.
The addition of the 4 (CVD alone group) and 5 (CVD-BIO group) MR
patient values as part of the responders for statistical analysis led
to both IL-6 and IL-10 levels, achieving borderline significance in
correlation with clinical response. Apparently, the addition of more
patient numbers added more power to the test; whereas such a grouping
is not appropriate for clinical analysis, it is possible that these
patients were quite similar biologically to those with greater tumor
reduction. However, examination of more patients in each group and
separate group analysis will be needed to resolve this issue formally.
Studies of regulation of expression of these cytokines is the topic of
much current research, and heterogeneity of IL-10 cytokine expression
attributable to genetic polymorphisms is known to exist (16
, 17)
. For IL-10 in particular, IL-10 allelic differences may need
to be considered as genetic control of antitumor response mechanisms.
A scenario involving the mechanism of the combination therapy we
proposed was that the CVD would initiate the DNA damage of tumor cells,
and the immunotherapy would then be potentiated. We further proposed
that in response to the IL-2 and IFN-
, proinflammatory Th1 cytokines
would first be elicited, followed by markers of macrophage activation
and finally a decrease of the tumor markers such as IL-6 and IL-10. Our
results clearly indicate that this pathway did not occur. The expected
Th1 cytokines were apparently inhibited by the CVD or the IL-10
elaboration or both, demonstrated by the fact that neither TNF-
nor
IL-1 was increased during the biochemotherapy. This absence of TNF-
induction was unexpected because it was thought to represent the major
product in response to IL-2, leading to production of NO, which is
known to be responsible for hypotension and vascular leak
(40)
. The CVD-BIO patients do demonstrate hypotension,
although manageable, suggesting that alternative pathways of nitric
oxide production may be operable (41)
.
The later production of the soluble IL-2R in the CVD-BIO patients
strongly indicates that T cells were activated during CVD-BIO, but
because IL-6 and IL-10 levels were high, these activated T cells may
have been of the Th2 subset. The increased expression of IL-6 and of
IL-10, together with their correlation with response, was most
unexpected. Presently, it is unknown whether their levels represent Th2
activation, death of melanoma cells releasing their intracellular
stores of these markers, secretion products of macrophages, or a
combination of these and other biological effects. It is important to
determine the source of these cytokines as well as whether any genetic
polymorphism exists in the mechanisms related to their expression.
Acquisition of sera from later time points is now justified based on
the data presented and will be necessary to determine total cytokine
production for each of these markers.
Human melanoma tumors are heterogeneous not only from patient to
patient but also possibly within individual patients. We hypothesize
that each tumor nodule contains a variety of tumor cells with different
biological characteristics, and that the endogenous factors supporting
tumor growth and invasion are the sum of numerous characteristics, some
of them mutable. The factors, which can be changed by intervention, are
likely to be complex and interrelated. Because it is known that some
melanoma patients with very large tumor burdens can achieve dramatic
and long-lasting responses to biological maneuvers, there is no doubt
that a subset of patients, yet to be identified by current prognostic
indicators, are biologically responsive. Although the mechanism of
tumor growth control in response to CVD-BIO is likely to be extremely
complex, the high response rate and correlation with IL-10 and IL-6
increased values during therapy suggests possible role(s) for these
cytokines.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
|
|---|
The outstanding technical assistance of Sandra Kinney is greatly
appreciated. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of all faculty
members of the Department of Melanoma and Sarcoma, M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center, for enrolling patients in the research arm of this
clinical trial.
 |
FOOTNOTES
|
|---|
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
1 Supported by Grants NIH NCI RO1 CA-64906 and P30
CA-166723 (to E. A. G.) and Institutional Core Grant NIH-CA-16672. 
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Department of Cancer Biology, Box 79, The University of
Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston,
TX 77030. 
3 The abbreviations used are: IL, interleukin;
sIL-2R, soluble IL-2 receptor
chain; CVD, combination chemotherapy,
composed of cisplatin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine; CVD-BIO,
biochemotherapy composed of CVD followed by IL-2 and IFN-
; ANOVA,
repeated measures analysis of variance; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; CR,
complete response; PR, partial response; MR, minor response; SD, stable
disease. 
Received 3/27/00;
revised 7/10/00;
accepted 7/11/00.
 |
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