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Restoring IL-2 to its cancer immunotherapy glory

Before there was PD1, there was IL-2. Can drug developers channel the effects of this pleiotropic cytokine to take back the lead?
  1. Asher Mullard
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Checkpoint inhibitors that block PD1 and CTLA4 signalling get all of the credit for setting off the immuno-oncology tsunami. But the cytokine IL-2 put these waves in motion decades before. In 1984, a 33-year-old woman with metastatic melanoma was treated with IL-2, then thought to primarily drive the expansion of effector T cells. Her cancer melted away, and never came back.

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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 20, 163-165 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-021-00034-6

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 23 February 2021: The lead indication for nemvaleukin alfa has been updated to solid tumours.

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