GM-CSP IN CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED FEBRILE NEUTROPENIA - A DOUBLE-BLIND RANDOMIZED STUDY

Modern chemotherapy programmes render patients susceptible to bacteria l and fungal infections, and the risk of developing febrile neutropeni a after a chemotherapy course is in proportion to the severity and dur ation of the neutropenia thus caused. This double-blind randomized stu dy presents details of 29 patients who developed febrile neutropenia a n average of 10 days after their course of chemotherapy for different types and stages of malignancy. Fourteen received granulocyte/macropha ge colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and 15 placebo during 7 consecut ive days as subcutaneous injections. The GM-CSF group demonstrated sig nificant increases in total white blood cell count (TWBC) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) from the morning of the third day of the study . The study concludes that GM-CSF has an important therapeutic role in the treatment of febrile neutropenia that arises during intensive che motherapy programmes but further studies of dosage and therapy duratio n are required as is the development of methods of assessing bone marr ow vitality.