INTERFERON THERAPY IN COMBINED TREATMENT OF BREAST CANCER: ANTIMETASTATIC EFFECT AND PHENOTYPE MODIFICATION OF TUMOR CELLS

Zhilchuk V.E., Lukjanova N.Y., Vorontsova A.L., Kudrjavets Y.I.

The efficacy of interferon (IFN) as a modi- fier of the metastatic process is assessed in 557 breast cancer (BC) patients. It is shown that introduction of IFN in combined adjuvant and neoadjuvant thera- py schemes is accompanied by a 24-month increase in the duration of remission and a 19.9% increase in the 3-year survival rate. IFN effects on tumor cells’ phe- notypic pattern which defines their metastatic capaci- ty were assessed and it was shown that the cytokine inhi- bits the expression of vascular endothelium growth fac- tor and Her2/neu, which is one of the main markers of a highly metastatic phenotype of tumor cells.