Prospective Randomized Trial of Interferon Alfa-2a Plus Vinblastine Versus Vinblastine Alone in Patients With Advanced Renal Cell Cancer

Abstract

The combination of IFNalpha2a plus VLB is superior to VLB alone in the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This is the first study to demonstrate that survival can be prolonged by using IFNalpha2a for these patients.

In vivo assessment of the antiproliferative properties of interferon-alpha during immunotherapy: Ki-67 (MIB-1) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

“…This finding is in accordance with the results of two recent randomised phase III trials in mRCC demonstrating a significant but only modest effect of IFN-a (Medical Research Council Renal Cancer Collaborators, 1999;Pyrhonen et al, 1999). Thus, a British study with a total of 335 patients randomised to subcutaneous IFN-a or oral medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) (Medical Research Council Renal Cancer Collaborators, 1999) demonstrated a significant absolute improvement in 1-year survival of 12% (43 vs 31%) and a significant improvement in median survival of 2.5 months (8.5 vs 6.0 months) for IFN-a-treated patients compared to MPA-treated patients.…”

Vaccination of metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients with autologous tumour-derived vitespen vaccine: clinical findings

“…Several studies have been published in the past 10 years looking at the efficacy of interferon (MRCRC Collaborators, 1999;Pyrhonen et al, 1999), IL-2 (Yang et al, 2003b;McDermott et al, 2005;Tannir et al, 2006), and antivascular-targeted therapies (Hainsworth et al, 2005;Escudier et al, 2007;Motzer et al, 2007) in the treatment of patients with metastatic RCC. These treatments demonstrate incremental gains in survival (MRCRC Collaborators, 1999;Pyrhonen et al, 1999), a small but consistent and durable complete response rate (Yang et al, 2003b;McDermott et al, 2005) or prolonged progression-free survival rates (Hainsworth et al, 2005;Escudier et al, 2007;Motzer et al, 2007).…”

“…These treatments demonstrate incremental gains in survival (MRCRC Collaborators, 1999;Pyrhonen et al, 1999), a small but consistent and durable complete response rate (Yang et al, 2003b;McDermott et al, 2005) or prolonged progression-free survival rates (Hainsworth et al, 2005;Escudier et al, 2007;Motzer et al, 2007). From a clinical perspective, vitespen does not reach the threshold of therapy when compared to these other agents.…”

“…Evidence that clear-cell RCC is an immunogenic tumour includes observed spontaneous tumour regression in 1 -4% of patients (Elhilali et al, 2000), the presence of lymphocytic infiltrates in tumour, and responsiveness of RCC to cytokine therapy. A number of studies have been reported demonstrating the ability of interferon alpha and interleukin-2 (IL-2) to engender a tumour response (Fyfe et al, 1995;Pyrhonen et al, 1999;MRCRC Collaborators, 1999;Yang et al, 2003b;McDermott et al, 2005). High-dose IL-2 has consistently resulted in complete responses in 4 -8% of patients, with durable responses in the majority of these individuals (Fyfe et al, 1995;Yang et al, 2003a;McDermott et al, 2005).…”

“…High-dose IL-2 has consistently resulted in complete responses in 4 -8% of patients, with durable responses in the majority of these individuals (Fyfe et al, 1995;Yang et al, 2003a;McDermott et al, 2005). In the case of interferon, two randomised studies demonstrated a modest survival advantage for those who received the agent (MRCRC Collaborators, 1999;Pyrhonen et al, 1999). A recent study demonstrated equal efficacy for standard and low dose interferon therapy (Tannir et al, 2006).…”