Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Targeted therapies

Denileukin diftitox—a step towards a 'magic bullet' for CTCL

Investigators found that denileukin diftitox, which targets the interleukin-2 receptor, achieves objective response rates in 44% of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, with a median duration of response of 7.8 months and 2% incidence of severe vascular leak syndrome. The inclusion of a placebo arm in the study revealed several additional interesting observations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: FoxP3 immunoperoxidase stain (brown) of regulatory T cells in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

References

  1. Manoukian, G. & Hagemeister, F. Denileukin: a novel immunotoxin. Expert Opin. Biol. Ther. 9, 1445–1451 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Prince, H. M. et al. Phase III placebo-controlled trial of denileukin for patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. J. Clin. Oncol. 28, 1870–1877 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Olsen. E. et al. Pivotal phase III trial of two dose levels of denileukin for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. J. Clin. Oncol. 19, 376–388 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Negro-Vilar, A. et al. Efficacy and safety of denileukin diftitox (Dd) in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) patients: integrated analysis of three large phase III trials [abstract]. J. Clin. Oncol. 26 (Suppl.), a8551 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Jones, D. et al. Degree of CD25 expression in T-cell lymphoma is dependent on tissue site: implications for targeted therapy. Clin. Cancer Res. 10, 5587–5594 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Talpur, R. et al. CD25 expression is correlated with histological grade and response to denileukin diftitox in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. J. Invest. Dermatol. 126, 575–583 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Gjerdrum, L. M. et al. FOXP3+ regulatory T cells in cutaneous T-cell lymphomas: association with disease stage and survival. Leukemia 21, 2512–2518 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Duvic, M. et al. A phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of peldesine (BCX-34) cream as topical therapy for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. J. Am. Acad. Dermatol. 44, 940–947 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Dhabhar, F. S., Satoskar, A. R., Bluethmann, H., David, J. R. & McEwen, B. S. Stress-induced enhancement of skin immune function: a role for gamma interferon. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 14, 2846–2851 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Ruter, J. et al. Altering regulatory T cell function in cancer immunotherapy: a novel means to boost the efficacy of cancer vaccines. Front. Biosci. 14, 1761–1770 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marshall E. Kadin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kadin, M., Vonderheid, E. Denileukin diftitox—a step towards a 'magic bullet' for CTCL. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 7, 430–432 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.105

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.105

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing