Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is an important treatment modality for malignancies.1, 2 Neutropenia the most common hematological toxicity of CCRT and can often lead to febrile neutropenia (FN), toxic shock, even death, which not only seriously impact clinical survival cancer patients, but also increase their medical expenses.3-5 Numerous national international organizations have published...

Optimal management of fungemia in neutropenic patients is still controversial. Several reports have already stressed the poor prognosis in invasive candidiasis (80% mortality in several reports). Therefore granulocyte transfusions would appear to be useful in the management of these infections. We report the use of rhG-CSF-primed granulocyte transfusions plus amphotericin B in two neutropenic p...

This journal recently included an article by Bennett et al (2006) reporting five cases of haematological malignancy occurring in normal individuals following exposure to haematopoietic growth factors. Three cases described lymphoid malignancies (non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia) occurring months to years after receipt of an investigational agent (pegylated, recombinant meg...

We report the case of a 34 year old woman with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sepsis with hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome (HIES). Although chemotactic activity of neutrophils was impaired in this patient, neutrophils accumulated in the lungs as assessed by bronchoalveolar lavage...

The binding of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to normal and human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells was investigated with radiolabeled recombinant human G-CSF (rhG-CSF). In all 14 cases of primary AML specific receptors for G-CSF were demonstrated on purified blast cells. The average numbers of G-CSF receptors ranged from very low to 428 receptors per cell (mean). Normal granulo...