DR LOVE: Dave, can you talk about how you screen out patients for high-dose IL-2 and where age fits in?
DR McDERMOTT: We don’t have a strict age cutoff. We look at a — people have looked at a functional 70, but there’s patients beyond 70 these days who are quite active, quite fit, who certainly can tolerate IL-2. They’re screened for cardiovascular function before they get it, so if they can pass a stress test, they can get IL-2. It’s actually fairly rare for us to be sent a patient for IL-2 that doesn’t eventually get it and get it successfully. Most of the screening happens in the community, where people assume that unless people fit a certain appearance — usually like the general thing might be a forty-something-year-old marathon runner is perceived to be an IL-2 candidate. But we treat people 60, 70 years old and beyond successfully with IL-2.
DR LOVE: What’s the oldest patient at your center that’s gotten high-dose IL-2?
DR McDERMOTT: Seventy-six.
DR LOVE: Tom?
DR HUTSON: I think it’s already been said so far. I don’t have an absolute criteria for age for high-dose IL-2. But generally, I’m looking at 65. I’ve treated patients as — the oldest patient I’ve treated may be 70 functional and chronologically 72, so it was a younger-acting 70-year-old. And they have to go through all the normal screening tests.