BACKGROUND Acute renal failure, with or without massive proteinuria, is a rare idiosyncratic toxicity of interferon (IFN)-α therapy. The authors sought to review their experience with this toxicity as well as the world literature on the subject. METHODS The authors describe two patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with IFN-α following high dose chemotherapy who developed renal failure and proteinuria after 3 and 4 weeks of IFN-α therapy, respectively. Fifteen previously reported cases of renal failure and proteinuria associated with IFN-α therapy are also reviewed. RESULTS Renal biopsies performed on the authors' two patients revealed focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. However, the other reported patients with IFN-α-associated renal failure and massive proteinuria had an assortment of pathologic findings. CONCLUSIONS The specific renal pathology associated with proteinuria may be a consequence of the condition and not its cause; differences in renal pathology may be caused by other predisposing factors. Patients treated with IFN-α following high dose chemotherapy, with or without autologous transplantation, should be followed for the development of proteinuria and renal failure. Cancer 1998;83:1938-1946.
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Shah et al. (1998) studied this question.