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Biologic Therapy of Leukemia pp 81–91Cite as

Interferons

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Part of the book series: Contemporary Hematology ((CH))

Abstract

Interferons (IFNs) represent a family of pleiotropic proteins. They were first described as antiviral agents in 1957 by Issacs and Lindenmann (1). It was later shown that they play an important role not only in antiviral control but also in cellular proliferation control and in immune system modulation. According to the cellular origin, IFNs can be classified as leukocyte, fibroblast, or immune IFN (2). Leukocyte and fibroblast IFNs are also called type I IFNs, and immune IFN is often called type II IFN (2). IFNs were the first cytokines used in clinical trials of patients with cancer. Results of pivotal clinical studies using IFN-α for treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) were already published in 1983 by Talpaz et al. (3). Further development of IFNs as antitumor agents developed rapidly, and today recombinant IFN-α is approved worldwide in more than 40 countries for treatment of various malignancies and viral diseases (4).

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Authors
  1. Thomas Fischer MD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leukemia Program, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Matt Kalaycio MD

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© 2003 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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Fischer, T. (2003). Interferons. In: Kalaycio, M. (eds) Biologic Therapy of Leukemia. Contemporary Hematology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-383-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-383-5_6

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-9777-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-383-5

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