[Action of various growth factors on bone marrow cultures in acute myeloid leukemia (ALM)]

In an attempt to detect residual leukemic cells during remission, we examined differences in the stimulatory capacity of colony stimulating factors (CSF) added to agar cultures of AML patients at diagnosis/relapse (group I) and in remission (II), or of normal controls (III). Supernatant from the human bladder carcinoma cell line 5637 and human recombinant granulocyte-macrophage-CSF were compared with supernatant from human placenta as standard. Group I showed wide patient-to-patient variations. The stimulatory capacity of the 3 CSF produced significant differences within groups II and III, but not between those groups. In conclusion, our comparative investigations do not reveal residual leukemic cells in the marrow of AML patients in remission.