[Supportive therapy in cancer treatment with colony stimulating factors and evaluation of their effect]

Several tumors are now curable. However, intensive chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation is required for the cure, and thus myelosuppression and resultant serious infections are major obstacles for the cure of cancer. G-CSF and M-CSF are commercially available in Japan. By strict comparative studies, G-CSF has been shown to be a useful drug, shortening the recovery of neutrophils and reducing the incidence of documented infections. There have been no convincing data that G-CSF stimulates the regrowth of myeloid leukemia in vivo, and thus G-CSF is safe even in myeloid leukemia, if used with precaution.