Intralesional IL-2 promising in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
- 30-03-2026
- Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma
- Editor's Choice
- News
medwireNews: Intralesional treatment with interleukin (IL)-2 therapy elicits a high rate of complete responses in people with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), suggests a case series of patients treated at a single institution.
“Although patients were not randomized, a complete response rate of nearly 81% is compelling and highlights the need to further study [intralesional] IL-2 as a potential option for select patients with cSCC,” say the researchers from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
Giving the background to the study, they explain in JAMA Dermatology that cSCC “is generally cleared surgically, yet it is challenging to manage recurrent disease, locally advanced disease, or disease in anatomically sensitive areas among patients, with few options available.”
The authors add that IL-2 “was the first effective immunotherapy used to treat human cancers,” but “vascular leak syndrome and cytokine storm were recognized early on as life-threatening toxic effects related to systemically administered IL-2.”
They continue: “To address this, “intralesional IL-2 has been adapted into Canadian melanoma clinical practice.”
Carman Anthony Giacomantonio and colleagues report on the outcomes of 16 cSCC patients with unsuccessful prior surgical attempts, comorbidities that made them unsuitable for surgery, or disease in cosmetically sensitive sites. The participants were aged an average of 79 years and nine (56%) were men.
They all received intralesional IL-2 at a concentration of 0.1 mL/2 mm2 (up to a maximum dose of 20,000,000 I/U per session) to clinically positive lesions every 2 weeks until disease progression. The mean number of treatments was 10 and the treatment duration was 13 months.
All but three patients had a complete response to treatment, giving an overall response rate of 81%. And the median progression-free survival time was 19 months.
Reporting on the safety profile, Giacomantonio et al say: “Importantly, in this typically elderly, comorbid patient population, no patients experienced grade 3 or higher toxic effects, with most patients experiencing only grade 1 toxic effects.”
The most common adverse events were fever, chills, and malaise. Side effects tended to appear within 6–8 hours of treatment and generally resolved within 24 hours.
The researchers say that “given its low cost compared to systemic immunotherapy and ease of use, [intralesional] IL-2 represents an option in cost-prohibitive settings.”
But “[f]urther randomized trials are required to fully elucidate these findings,” they conclude.
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