Interleukin-2-induced fever in relation to objective tumor response and survival in patients with metastatic melanoma.

8569 Background: Recent data has suggested fever as a beneficial side effect to immunotherapy. In 2007 we decided to abandon the routine use of antipyretics in patients receiving immunotherapy with interleukin 2 (IL-2) and interferon- a (IFN). The aim of this retrospective study was to examine the role of treatment-related fever during IL-2 treatment in metastatic melanoma. Patients were allowed temperatures up to 41 °C before intervention was instituted. Methods: 133 consecutive patients with metastatic melanoma treated with IL-2 and IFN from January 2006 to April 2009 were included. Temperature was measured every 8 hours during IL-2 treatment. We analyzed the highest temperature as a predictive factor for objective response and overall survival, using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard analyses. 37 patients treated before 2007 received paracetamol and 96 patients after 2007 were treated without. Results: A maximum temperature of 39.0 °C or higher was shown to be an independent predictive fa...