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The ominous prognosis of metastatic malignant melanoma has led to a large number of clinical treatment trials [1, 2]. Some improvement in terms of response rate seems to have been achieved, but the main question asked by clinicians remains: is there a biological predictive factor for the therapeutic response to IL-2 therapy ? It is now well established that IL-2 plays a pivotal role in the immune response, both in its own receptor expression and other cytokine release. To exert its biological effect, IL-2 interacts with specific membrane receptors. Three types of IL-2 binding sites have been described: a 55 kD protein (α-chain, TAC) low-affinity receptor unable to deliver a signal to the cell, a 70 kD (β-chain) intermediate-affinity receptor which can transduce a signal and a high-affinity receptor made up of both the p 55 and p 70 molecules. More recently a third receptor has been cloned: 7-chain. Moreover, activated T cells release a truncated form of the γ-chain molecule as a soluble Interleukin-2 receptor (sIL-2R) [3, 4]. We report here the study of immunological events both cellular and humoral following CDDP, IL-2 and Interferon-α in 31 patients treated for malignant metastatic melanoma.

Neo-Adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer means that chemotherapy is used as the first therapeutic tool and that the locoregional treatment is considered as an adjuvant. The term has been contested and others were proposed, but induction treatment is too specific for the first chemotherapy combination used in leukemia to achieve complete remission. Primary treatment does not encompass the consolidation phase which belongs to our strategy so that even if it is not quite satisfactory we keep the term Neo-Adjuvant which has been coined in the seventies by E. Frei for head and neck cancers.

Psychoneuroimmunology is a fast-growing field that explores the relationship of psychological factors and the immune system. In particular, much research has focussed on the impact of psychological events on immune parameters. An equally interesting but less studied situation, however, is the occurrence of psychological side effects after administration of immune substances in humans. In this regard, lymphokines could be of particular interest, since they are regularly used to treat certain cancers. One such substance is Interleukin-2 (IL-2), which is often infused in metastatic cancer patients at substantial doses over several days. Such infusions represent a unique, « quasi-experimental » opportunity to study the psychological side effects accompanying the lymphokine. However, IL-2 is rarely the sole therapeutic agent used in the cancer setting (Siegel & Puri, 1991). In particular, α-Interferon (INF) is often co-administered.