Colony stimulating factors in patients with fever and neutropenia

Colony stimulating factors (CSFs), are essential for the regulation of the hematopoietic system and were developed by the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry in the early 1990s for the prevention of serious neutropenic comp lication after myelosuppressive chemotherapy. Both G-CSF and GM-CSF consist ently lead to an increase in circulating white blood cells and a reduction in the incidence of fever and neutropenia after myelosuppressive chemothera py in patients with solid tumors, hematologic malignancies, and those under going stem-cell transplantation. Their role in improving response rates to chemotherapy and overall survival is less clear. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. and International Society of Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.