| Exclusion Criteria: | 1) Patients on concurrent immunotherapy, including IFN therapy (prior therapy is allowed if >/= 4 months since immunotherapy).
2) Patients who have received investigational drugs including immunotherapy, gene therapy, hormone therapy, biologic therapy, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or had major surgery within 3 weeks of study enrollment
3) Patients who have not recovered from acute toxicity of previous therapy prior to enrollment.
4) Patients with medically uncontrolled cardiovascular illness, unstable angina, congestive heart failure, history of myocardial infarction, electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities suggestive of cardiac conduction delay (QTc >0.47 seconds), history of atrial fibrillation or flutter, or other serious clinically significant cardiac arrhythmia
5) Patients who have an active, uncontrolled systemic infection considered opportunistic, life threatening, or clinically significant.
6) Pregnant or lactating women, and fertile women or men unless surgically sterile or using effective contraception; All female patients of childbearing potential or < 1 year postmenopausal must have a negative beta human chorionic gonadotropin (βhCG) pregnancy test at baseline and be practicing a medically acceptable method of birth control (oral contraceptives for at least 3 months, implantation of an intrauterine device at least 2 months, or barrier methods [e.g. vaginal diaphragm, vaginal sponge, or condom with spermicidal jelly]). These must be continued for 3 months after study initiation
7) Patients who use daily glucocorticoids except for physiological replacement.
8) Patients who are known to be positive for Hepatitis B surface antigen, Hepatitis C or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
9) Patients with prior history of solid organ allografts or allogeneic bone marrow transplant.
10) Patients who have a psychiatric disorder(s) that would interfere with consent, study participation, or follow-up.
11) Patients who have any other severe concurrent disease, which, in the judgment of the investigator, would make the patient inappropriate for entry into this study.
12) Patient who have symptomatic or untreated central nervous system metastases.
13) Patients taking the following medications will not be eligible: Amiodarone (Cordarone); Disopyramide (Norpace); Dofetilide (Tikosyn); Procainamide (Procanbid, Pronestyl); Quinidine (Quinaglute); Sotalol (Betapace); Erythromycin; Azithromycin (Z-pack), cont'd
14) Clarithromycin (Biaxin); Pentamidine (Pentacarinat); Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim); Bepridil (Vascor); Phenothiazines-prochlorperazine (Compazine), promethazine (Phenergan), chlorpromazine (Thorazine) or any antipsychotic medication; Butyrophenones-Haloperidol (Haldol), cont'd
15) Risperidone (Risperdal); Tricyclic or tetracyclic antidepressants—imipramine (Tofranil), amitriptyline (Elavil), desipramine (Norpramin), nortriptyline (Pamelor); Monoamine oxidase inhibitors; High dose methadone; Arsenic trioxide; Dolasetron (Anzemet); Any herbal preparations; or • Chronic need for colony stimulating factors (i.e., GM-CSF), erythropoietin use is permitted.
16) Patients with a history of hypersensitivity to IFN a-2b or SSG or any of their components. |