Local therapy with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and other cytokines may be a very effective way to treat cancer. This was the theme of the First Symposium on Local Cytokine Therapy of Cancer: Interleukin-2, Interferons and Related Cytokines, in Hamburg, 29 April-1 May 1999. The abstracts are published in Anticancer Research 19: 1995-2016 (1999). Here we present a report.