Word: interferon
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...effect, it was like starting an armaments program without fully understanding how the weaponry works. If interferon is the body's Paul Revere, designed to warn against viral invasion and stimulate the defense forces, why does it also appear to work against cancer? Though viruses are suspect in some human cancers, interferon also seems to work against tumors generally thought to be caused by nonviral agents such as radiation and chemicals...
...cell division. Unlike most cancer drugs it does not kill malignant cells outright, but it somehow alters them so they stop proliferating. Another important difference: rather than killing cancer cells when they are rapidly dividing, IF works best when they are dormant and in the so-called resting stage. Interferon also seems to issue a call to arms to the general immune system. It marshals macrophages, scavenger cells that gobble up foreign material, and increases both the numbers and activity of another specialized group of lymphocytes, known as natural killer cells. All types of interferon boost the defense system...
Whatever questions remain about both the role and effectiveness of interferon as a cancer drug, most could be answered if larger amounts of IF were available. Admits Gutterman: "We don't really know what we're doing yet. It happens with every new drug. In its early days penicillin was good at treating minor infections but not the big ones, like endocarditis [a bacterial infection of the heart valves]. It took years to figure out that it would work there too?but only at very high doses. But everyone said at first it would be crazy to try that level...
...word of interferon spreads, doctors are bracing for an onslaught of pleas from cancer victims and their families. Almost every request will be rejected. IF is still quite rare; in the U.S., only a few hundred patients have received it, most of them for short intervals. All testing so far has been designed to show whether interferon is active against different kinds of cancer, not whether it can effect lasting cures. But even if there were a glut of interferon, the drug would not be handed out indiscriminately; its long-range effects, good or bad, are still not known. Those...
...breast-cancer patients, but only if surgery and radiotherapy have failed to halt the disease, 2) myeloma victims, and 3) patients with types of lymphoma that do not respond well to conventional treatment. The choice is also usually made from among patients already under treatment at a center where interferon is being tested...