Cytotoxic effect of interferon on primary malignant tumour cells. Studies in various malignancies.

It is a well established fact that interferon (IFN) can inhibit cell growth, but only recently has it been found that IFN can exert a direct cytotoxic effect on primary tumour cells. This was shown in malignant cells from patients with multiple myeloma. In this study the influence of IFN on the viability of primary malignant cells from patients with different malignancies was studied. As previously described a direct cytotoxic effect of IFN on multiple myeloma cells was observed. No major effects on cell viability could be found in malignant cells from patients with lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, hairy cell leukaemia, chronic myelogenous leukaemia and carcinoma. This indicates that the direct cytotoxic effect of IFN in multiple myeloma may be relatively specific for this malignancy. It could be due to a specific differentiation stage in the myeloma cells, specific genetic alterations and/or abrogation of an autocrine/paracrine loop.