Interleukin-2: Biological Activities and Clinical Relevance in Advanced Stage Human Cancer

Interleukin-2 (IL-2), originally described as T cell growth factor by Morgan et al. in 1975 [29], is the first of a new kind of immunotherapeutic agents which work against established tumors through the modulation of host immune functions. Cloning of the human gene for IL-2 and subsequent expression in E. coli has allowed for the large scale production and use of IL-2 in laboratory and clinical studies.