This is a pilot study that will accrue between 30-40 patients nationally to determine the feasibility of giving interleukin-2 at a high dose in the hospital followed by a low dose at home. The rationale for this study is that interleukin-2 has substantial direct toxic effects on the myeloblasts of AML and has indirect immunologic toxicity by stimulating natural killer cells and other mediators of a putative graft vs leukemia response. There are a total of seven patients entered nationally. Four have been treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. None of them has had grade III or IV toxicity and none of the patients treated elsewhere have had serious toxicity. In all patients blood samples have been taken to measure levels of CD3+ cells, natural killer cells and soluble interleukin-2 receptor. In addition, marrow samples have been taken pre-and post- IL-2 to test for minimal residual disease using multichannel flow cytometry. In the pilot study, it is unlikely we will be able to determine efficacy except for the remote possibility we may document eradication of minimal residual disease.
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