Table 2 Milestones of IFNs use for B cell malignancies
Year | Disease | Milestone | Type of IFN | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
IFNs as anti-viral agent | ||||
1957 | Virus | Discovery of IFNs as a broad spectrum antiviral protein | Crudea | Isaacs and Lindenmann [5] |
IFNs as anti-cancer agent in the pre-immunotherapy era | ||||
1963 | Leukemia | First reported use of IFNs in human cancer: AML | Crude | Falcoff et al. [29] |
1974 | Osteosarcoma | IFNs in first large scale clinical trial (nonrandomised; 83 patients; Sweden) in human cancer | Crude | Strander et al. [30] |
1977 | Lymphoma | First reported use of IFNs in treatment of Lymphoma (diffuse histiocytic lymphoma) | Crude | Merigan et al. [31] |
1978 | MM | First reported use of IFNs in MM | Crude | Mellstedt et al. [36] |
1978–1980 | – | 1978: IFN was purified to homogeneity and two subtypes of IFN (alpha and beta) were then sucessful purified | Purified | |
1980: Nomenclature formally adopted classifying IFNs into 3 categories based on antigenic specificity (alpha, beta, gamma) | ||||
1981 | – | First successful expression of immune IFNs by recombinant DNA | Recombinant | Genentech [8] |
1981 | Lymphoma | National cancer institute carried out Phase II trials of IFN-α-2a in NHL cases | Recombinant | Foon et al. [32] |
The middle | Hairy cell | A major breakthrough that the effectiveness of IFNs was found in hairy cell leukemia | NEJM, 1984,15;791; AM J MED, 1986,351; BLOOD, 1985,1017; BLOOD, 1985,644; JCO, 1986,900 | |
1980s | leukemia | |||
1980s–1990s | Lymphoma | Conflicting results of clinic trials on the efficacy of IFNs in survival of indolent lymphoma: (1) IFN monotherapy, (2) IFN combined cytoreductive chemotherapy, (3) IFN-contained maintenance | Purified/recombinant | Oncology [33] |
2000 | MM | Meta-analysis of 30 randomised trials looking at use of IFNs in MM: (1) For induction therapy (2333 patients; 17 trials), IFNs resulted in 6.6% higher response rates, and prolonged relapse free and overall survival (2) For maintenance therapy (1615 patients; 13 trials), IFNs led to prolongation of relapse-free and overall survival | Recombinant | Fritz and Ludwig [37] |
IFNs as anti-cancer agent in the post-immunotherapy era | ||||
Early-mid | ||||
2000s | Lymphoma | Rituximab with CHVP + IFNs for follicular lymphoma patients by GELA-GOELAMS FL200 | Recombinant | Salles et al. [38] |
2008 | Lymphoma | IFNα-2a+ rituximab maintenance in a Phase II study | Recombinant | Nordic Lymphoma Group [39] |
2010 | MM | Interferon-antibody fusion proteins (refer to Table 3) | Recombinant | |