Is there any predictive factor of the clinical response to IL-2 therapy in metastatic malignant melanoma ?

The ominous prognosis of metastatic malignant melanoma has led to a large number of clinical treatment trials [1, 2]. Some improvement in terms of response rate seems to have been achieved, but the main question asked by clinicians remains: is there a biological predictive factor for the therapeutic response to IL-2 therapy ? It is now well established that IL-2 plays a pivotal role in the immune response, both in its own receptor expression and other cytokine release. To exert its biological effect, IL-2 interacts with specific membrane receptors. Three types of IL-2 binding sites have been described: a 55 kD protein (α-chain, TAC) low-affinity receptor unable to deliver a signal to the cell, a 70 kD (β-chain) intermediate-affinity receptor which can transduce a signal and a high-affinity receptor made up of both the p 55 and p 70 molecules. More recently a third receptor has been cloned: 7-chain. Moreover, activated T cells release a truncated form of the γ-chain molecule as a soluble Interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) [3, 4]. We report here the study of immunological events both cellular and humoral following CDDP, IL-2 and Interferon-α in 31 patients treated for malignant metastatic melanoma.