Adoptive immunotherapy using lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and interleukin-2 for recurrent malignant primary brain tumors.

Ten patients with recurrent malignant primary brain neoplasms were treated with adoptive immunotherapy using lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and interleukin-2 (IL-2). Nine patients had supratentorial glioma and they received multiple intratumoral instillations of LAK cells through reservoir-catheter system or burrhole. The other patients with disseminated subarachnoid metastases from posterior fossa medulloblastoma received immunotherapy via lumbar subarachnoid route. A partial and transient clinical response was observed in two patients. following the therapy, and a cystic transformation of the essentially solid tumour was noted on the CT scans of these two patients. No significant clinical or radiological response to the treatment was observed in the remaining 8 patients. The results of this preliminary study reveal limitations of the regional intratumoral adoptive immunotherapy using currently available techniques and provide sufficient evidence of its effectiveness to warrant further investigations.