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Autoimmunity Resulting From Cytokine Treatment Predicts Long-Term Survival in Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Cancer

From the Departments of Hematology and Oncology, and Endocrinology, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, and Department of Cell Biology and Immunobiology, National Center for Biotechnology (GBF), Braunschweig, Germany; Ludwig Cancer Institute, Brussels, Belgium; and Institute Necker Enfants Malades, Paris, France.

Address reprint requests to Jens Atzpodien, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Department of Hematology and Oncology, Carl-Neuberg Str, D-30623 Hannover, Germany.

PURPOSE: In patients undergoing cytokine therapy, systemically applied interleukin-2 (IL-2) and/or interferon-alpha (IFN-) have been reported to induce thyroid dysfunction as well as thyroid autoantibodies. We analyzed the correlation of thyroid autoimmunity with HLA phenotype, various other autoimmune parameters, and patient survival.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: For this purpose, antithyroglobulin autoantibodies, antimicrosomal thyroid autoantibodies, thyroglobulin receptor autoantibodies, thyroid dysfunction, and multiple clinical parameters were determined in 329 unselected patients with metastatic renal cell cancer before and after systemic IL-2 and IFN-2 therapy. For statistical analysis, we used both univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models and the two-tailed Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS: Antithyroglobulin autoantibodies and antimicrosomal thyroid autoantibodies were detected in 60 patients (18%); positive autoantibody titers of various other autoimmune parameters were statistically unrelated. The presence of thyroid autoantibodies was correlated with prolonged survival (P < .0001). There was a statistically significant difference in frequencies of HLA-Cw7 expression between thyroid autoantibody-positive and -negative patients (P .05), and the Cw7 expression was associated with prolonged overall survival (P = .009).

CONCLUSION: The evaluation of thyroid autoantibodies during cytokine therapy could be a useful prognostic marker for patients with renal cell carcinoma who benefit from cytokine treatment. IL-2– and IFN-2-induced tumor control and prolonged survival may require breaking of immunologic tolerance against self-antigens.

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