[Application of CSF to cancer treatment]

The nature, type and mechanism of action of various colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) have been described. Among these CSFs, injection of recombinant human granulocyte CSF(rhG-CSF) caused a marked increase in neutrophils in mice as well as in monkeys. This neutrophilia in injected mice was preceded by a marked increase in hematopoietic precursors in hematopoietic organs. Injection of monkeys with rh granulocyte-macrophage CSF(rhGM-CSF) also induced a marked increase in peripheral blood neutrophils as well as eosinophilia and monocytosis. Injection of recombinant mouse interleukin 3(rmIL-3) caused a significant increase in peripheral blood eosinophils, neutrophils and lymphocytes. With rmIL-3, however, a remarkable increase was observed in various hematopoietic precursor cells in hematopoietic organs. In this study, both G-CSF and GM-CSF were shown to significantly shorten the period of neutropenia after irradiation and autologous bone marrow transplantation in monkeys. rhG-CSF was demonstrated to accelerate the recovery from neutropenia induced in mice and monkeys by 5-fluorouracil or cyclophosphamide. M-CSF purified from human urine, which has been reported to stimulate monocyte-macrophages to produce G-CSF, was demonstrated to be effective in accelerating the recovery from neutropenia in patients with various kinds of gynecological and urological malignancies after chemotherapy. It also accelerated the recovery from neutropenia after allogeneic as well as autologous bone marrow transplantation. These results indicate that CSFs are very effective for the treatment of neutropenia after cancer chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation.