Role of IL-2 in cancer immunotherapy

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is one of the key cytokines with pleiotropic effects on immune system. It has been approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma and metastatic melanoma. Recent progress has been made in our understanding of IL-2 in regulating lymphocytes that has led to exciting new directions for cancer immunotherapy. While improved IL-2 formulations might be used as monotherapies, their combination with other anticancer immunotherapies, such as adoptive cell transfer regimens, antigen-specific vaccination, and blockade of immune checkpoint inhibitory molecules, for example cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed death 1 (PD-1) mono-antibodies, would held the…