The Therapeutic Potential of Lymphokines in Human Cancer

Abstract

Lymphokines are non-antibody proteins, generated by lymphocyte activation, that act as intercellular mediators of the immunological response. Lymphokines were first delineated in 1969 as substances which effect a restricted range of cellular immune responses such as delayed- type hypersensitivity, allograft rejection and macrophage activation. They were soon shown to be different from immunoglobulins and to be produced under the governing influence of thymus-derived lymphocytes. In the last few years this rather restricted view of lymphokine function has been enlarged by the realization that lymphokines play a fundamental role in the intrinsic regulation of the immune system and in its interactions with neuroendocrine mechanisms which are thought to act homeo- statically in the extrinsic regulation of the immunological response (for refs see (1)).