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Cytokine therapy gives immune-signalling proteins as drugs. High-dose interleukin-2 was the first immunotherapy to cure some melanomas, at great toxicity.
High-dose IL-2 and interferon-alpha are historic. Engineered IL-2 (bempegaldesleukin failed), IL-15 superagonists (nogapendekin alfa/Anktiva, approved 2024 with BCG in bladder cancer), IL-12 (tavokinogene, intratumoural), and tumour-targeted immunocytokines are the modern forms. IL-2 remains part of TIL therapy regimens.
Systemic or targeted delivery of T- and NK-cell growth factors.
Nothing recorded yet: a foundation, or a gap to fill.
Dependencies are what this technology cannot be delivered without: manufacturing steps, instruments, software, upstream methods. See its full chain on the map.
High-dose interleukin-2 was the first immunotherapy to cure a small fraction of patients with metastatic melanoma and kidney cancer, at the cost of ICU-level toxicity; today it mainly supports TIL therapy.
Bempegaldesleukin was a re-engineered interleukin-2 meant to be a safer version of a famous old immunotherapy. It added nothing to nivolumab in three phase 3 trials.
Eflapegrastim is a once-per-cycle white cell growth factor approved in the United States in 2022 to prevent infections when chemotherapy for solid tumours knocks down neutrophils, an alternative to pegfilgrastim.
Elritercept is Keros and Takeda's ligand trap for the anaemia of myelodysplastic syndromes, a relative of luspatercept, in phase 3 trials.
Ceplene is a twice-daily injection of histamine given alongside low-dose interleukin-2 as maintenance treatment for adults with acute myeloid leukaemia in first remission, to help immune cells prevent relapse. It is authorised in Europe only.
Interferon alfa was the first biologic cancer drug (1986). It treated hairy cell leukaemia, CML, melanoma, kidney cancer and Kaposi sarcoma, and has been replaced almost everywhere by better-tolerated agents.
Lenograstim is Europe's and Japan's glycosylated form of G-CSF, given after chemotherapy to shorten the period of dangerously low neutrophils and to mobilise stem cells for transplant; it does the same job as filgrastim.
An immune-activating drug approved in Europe for osteosarcoma after a trial suggested it improved survival; the FDA never approved it, and it remains one of oncology's transatlantic disagreements.
Nogapendekin alfa inbakicept is an engineered version of the immune-boosting protein IL-15, given with BCG into the bladder, approved in 2024 for early bladder cancer that BCG alone no longer controls.
Oprelvekin was the first drug approved, in 1997, to prevent the severe platelet falls that chemotherapy causes, but fluid retention and heart rhythm problems limited it and it was withdrawn in 2011; thrombopoietin agonists took over the problem.
Peginterferon alfa-2b, a long-acting interferon, was approved in 2011 as Sylatron for melanoma that had spread to lymph nodes and been removed, to delay recurrence; checkpoint inhibitors have since replaced it in that role.
Ropeginterferon alfa-2b is a long-acting interferon for polycythaemia vera that, unlike hydroxyurea, can shrink the mutant clone over years.
Sargramostim is a lab-made version of GM-CSF, the signal that tells bone marrow to make white cells; approved in 1991, it shortens the dangerous low-count period after leukaemia chemotherapy and stem cell transplants.
Beromun is a recombinant form of the immune protein TNF-alpha, pumped with the chemotherapy melphalan through the isolated blood supply of an arm or leg to shrink soft-tissue sarcomas so that the limb can be saved rather than amputated.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"engineered cytokine" OR ABSTRACT:"engineered cytokine" OR TITLE:"IL-2 variant" OR ABSTRACT:"IL-2 variant" OR TITLE:"IL-15 superagonist" OR ABSTRACT:"IL-15 superagonist") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Cytokines & engineered cytokines, not a curated reading list.
Shares A Single-arm, Multicenter Study to Assess the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of P1101 in Adults With ET, A Study to Access Efficacy and Safety of P1101 in Chinese PV Patients Who Are Intolerant or Resistance to HU, A Study to Assess Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of P1101 in Adult Patients With PV, P1101 in Treating Patients With Early PMF or Overt PMF at Low or Intermediate-1 Risk.
Shares Low-PV, A Study to Access Efficacy and Safety of P1101 in Chinese PV Patients Who Are Intolerant or Resistance to HU, A Study to Assess Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of P1101 in Adult Patients With PV, Extension Study of P1101 After Completion of Phase 2 Study in PV Patients or Phase 3 Study in ET Patients.
Shares QUILT 3.032, A Phase 2, Open-label, Single-arm Study Of Autologous M-CENK Adoptive Cell Therapy And N-803 (IL-15 Superagonist) In Combination With Gemcitabine In P, N-803 and PD-L1 t-haNK Combined With Bevacizumab for Recurrent or Progressive Glioblastoma, Clinical Trial of N-803 Plus Tislelizumab or Prior Failed Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor and Docetaxel Versus Docetaxel Monotherapy in Participants With Advanced or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Who Have Acquired Resistance to Immune Checkpoint In.
Shares A Single-arm, Multicenter Study to Assess the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of P1101 in Adults With ET, Extension Study of P1101 After Completion of Phase 2 Study in PV Patients or Phase 3 Study in ET Patients, Ropeginterferon Alfa-2b (P1101) vs. Anagrelide in Essential Thrombocythemia Patients With Hydroxyurea Resistance or Intolerance, Peginterferon alfa-2b.
Shares Engineered bacteria as living cancer drugs, Inhaled immune therapy to make the lung hostile to arriving tumour cells, Engineered bacteria that live in tumours and manufacture drugs there, In situ vaccination.
Shares Study 0201, Histamine dihydrochloride, Aldesleukin (high-dose IL-2).
Shares QUILT 3.032, Nogapendekin alfa inbakicept, NK-cell recognition: missing self & stress ligands, Bladder & urothelial cancer.