Interferon-alpha induces bcl-2 proto-oncogene in patients with neuroendocrine gut tumor responding to its antitumor action.

What Was Tested

This controlled clinical trial looks at Octreotide and Interferon-alpha.

The expression pattern of these genes was compared with the clinical response (changes in the tumor markers and changes of the tumor size determined by radiology) after treatment with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha, n = 13), somatostatin analog (octreotide, n = 3; lanreotide, n = 2) or a combination of both (n = 5).

Immunohistochemistry and in situ RT-PCR were performed and expressions were scored from 0 (no staining) to 6 (strong and wide-spread staining).

What Was Measured

Immunohistochemistry and in situ RT-PCR were performed and expressions were scored from 0 (no staining) to 6 (strong and wide-spread staining).

With regard to clinical outcome, the scores (mean +/- SEM) of immunohistochemical staining of bcl-2 and bax were 1.77 +/- 0.25 and 4 +/- 0.22 for patients with stable disease and, 0.54 +/- 0.28 and 4.68 +/- 0.21 for patients with progressive disease.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antineoplastic Agents, Combined Modality Therapy, Disease Progression, Genes, bcl-2, Interferon alpha-2, Interferon-alpha and Intestinal Neoplasms.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a controlled clinical trial of Octreotide and Interferon-alpha.

The publication is from 1998 (Anticancer research), a journal based in Greece.

More context: the related Octreotide library page, all human trials.