Evaluation of angiogenis activation during interleukin-2 infusion in patients with renal cell cancer (RCC)

14640 It is well known that during IL-2 administration a complex activation of the cytokine network is on going, but few data are available about the effect of this activation on angiogenesis. In our Institution all patients with metastatic RCC undergo to the following schedule of IL-2 infusion: IL-2 10 MIU continuous infusion (ci) 5/7 days, one week off followed by IL-2 10 MIU ci 5/7 days, 4 week off (1 cycle); for a total number of 2 cycles. We evaluated the activation of angiogenesis measuring the plasma level of VEGF MMP2 and MMP9 before, during and after the 5 days IL-2 ci. In 13 patients analysed, before IL-2 ci, we have the following median level of plasma VEGF (773+ 378 pg/ml), MMP2 (55.9 + 19.9 ng/ml) and MMP9 (1146+498 ng/ml). The baseline median values of VEGF MMP-9 showed a trend to correlate with the number of metastasis before therapy. During 3 days of IL-2 ci we did not observed any significant increase of VEGF MMP2 and MMP9 as well as after 24 hours from the end of the 5 days ci. On the co...