1987 Volume 78 Issue 11 Pages 1258-1265
The antiproliferative activity of recombinant human interferon (rIFN)-β and rIFN-γ, alone or in combination, against a human colon cancer cell line (RPMI 4788) was examined in vitro and in nude mice. rIFN-β and rIFN-γ interacted synergistically in vitro. In experimental pulmonary metastasis and intraabdominal carcinomatosis in nude mice, rIFN-β and rIFN-γ were administered iv and ip, respectively, alone or in combination, for 10 consecutive days beginning 2 days after RPMI 4788 cells were inoculated. In both models, rIFN-β and rIFN-γ alone had significant antitumor effects compared with the saline-control group. Combined administration of rIFN-β and rIFN-γ resulted in marked antitumor effects. In the pulmonary metastasis model, there were no pulmonary metastatic nodules in the group treated with the combination of rIFN-β and rIFN-γ (P<0.001), while there were 324.6±83.1 (mean±SD) nodules in the control group. In the intraabdominal carcinomatosis model, the mean survival time was 114.0±8.2 days (P< 0.01) for the combination therapy group, but only 41.8±5.6 days for the control group. These results suggest that combined treatment with rIFN-β and rIFN-γ might be a promising therapy for pulmonary metastasis and intraabdominal carcinomatosis of human cancers.
