Treatment of drug-induced bone marrow suppression with recombinant human granulocyte/monocyte colony stimulating factor.

The haemopoietic growth factors are relatively new additions to the treatment of drug-induced bone marrow suppression. Treatment with growth factors may induce primitive cells to enter into cell cycle. In clinical practice they have beneficial effects on the neutropenia following cytotoxic chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation, and it may be effective in severe chronic neutropenia by cause drugs. One of the classes of drugs which cause serious agranulocytosis are the antithyroid drugs. A thyrotoxic patient with methimazole-induced agranulocytosis was treated with recombinant human granulocyte-monocyte colony-stimulating factor (rHu GM-CSF). Seven days following treatment with daily subcutaneous injection of 270 micrograms rHu GM-CSF combined with antibiotics and glucocorticosteroids, granulocytes reappeared in the peripheral blood and the sepsis resolved. No side effects of the treatment were observed. The combination of rHu GM-CSF and glucocorticosteroids was successful in restoring normal granulocyte count.