BONE-MARROW AND BLOOD-CELLS AS ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF HEMATOPOIETIC PROGENITORS AFTER FAILURE OF A FIRST COLLECTION - A SINGLE INSTITUTION RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

From October 1992 through October 1994, we retro-spectively identified 12 patients who underwent two collections of hematopoietic progenitor s because the first one was considered inadequate. Five patients had b one marrow harvest first and underwent apheresis later. Seven patients underwent apheresis first and had bone marrow harvest later. Most pat ients had advanced cancer and had been heavily pretreated at time of h arvesting. The second harvest yielded an appropriate number of progeni tors for a proportion of patients. Nine of 12 patients received both c ryopreserved marrow and blood cells. Hematopoietic recovery in these p atients was somewhat longer than in patients currently receiving blood cells as a support for high dose chemotherapy at our institution; how ever, except for 2 patients, neutrophil and platelet recovery was obse rved within a reasonable delay. We conclude that patients who have poo r blood cell collection may benefit from bone marrow harvesting, and v ice versa.