Predicting response to IL-2 therapy for metastatic melanoma

Abstract

Evaluation of: Sabatino M, Kim-Schulz S, Panelli MC et al. Serum vascular endothelial growth factor and fibronectin predict clinical response to high-dose IL-2 therapy. J. Clin. Oncol. 27(16), 2645–2652 (2009).

IL-2 therapy induces durable responses in a small proportion of patients with metastatic melanoma, a disease refractory to most anticancer treatments. However, administration requires intensive medical support; due to the risk of severe side effects, hence identification of likely responders or nonresponders would be of great clinical value. This study prospectively examined patient serum pre- and post-IL-2 infusion and analyzed for protein markers of response, in training and test sets. Elevated baseline levels of VEGF and fibronectin predicted a lack of response to IL-2 therapy and worse overall outcome. Serum VEGF is an easily measured biomarker and is a potentially clinically useful test to exclude patients unlikely to benefit from IL-2 treatment, if the results of this study are replicable. Significant biological questions are raised by this study and, furthermore, the use of IL-2 in the context of emerging molecular therapies for metastatic melanoma needs careful consideration.

Keywords::

• fibronectin
• interleukin-2
• metastatic melanoma
• predictive test
• VEGF

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.