EFFECT OF AUTOLYMPHOCYTE THERAPY ON SURVIVAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA

To assess the value of autolymphocyte therapy (ALT) in the treatment of metastatic renal-cell carcinoma, 90 patients were randomised to receive every month for six months oral cimetidine plus an infusion of autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes activated in vitro by a previously generated autologous lymphokine mixture, or cimetidine alone. The median follow-up was 15 months. Survival time for the autolymphocyte group was approximately 2·5 times that for the cimetidine group (p = 0·008). Patients who had >500 pg interleukin-1 (IL-1) per ml autologous lymphokine mixture had a six-fold survival advantage over those with <500 pg/ml (p<0·00005). Men treated with ALT had a fourfold survival advantage (p = 0·001) over men who received cimetidine only. Infusion of the cultured autolymphocytes was accompanied by mild, self-limited fever in 11 of the 45 ALT patients, and by only one instance in which fever was accompanied by tachypnoea and hypotension. © 1990.