What are some side effects experienced during interferon therapy?
Common side effects include headache, chills, fever, back pain, joint pain and anorexia. At high-dose levels of interferon, the side effects become debilitating to the patients. In general, the side effects of interferon are reversible, so when the patient stops taking interferon, the symptoms disappear. Interferon could be more effective in the treatment of disease, but the side effects limit the dosage. Currently, interferon is provided by injecting it into the arm or leg, and it is distributed all over the body from there. In order to get a significant amount of interferon to the tumor, you need to inject a large amount of interferon into the body. Often, a patient cannot tolerate the quantity that would be required to eliminate tumors. What about the future of interferon? My belief is that interferon is going to be effective in treating most solid tumors if a sustained-release system can keep interferon in the tumor. If it were possible to keep the interferon in the tumors and not
