Supportive care for children with cancer. Guidelines of the Childrens Cancer Study Group. The role of granulocyte transfusions.

Review of the literature, as it pertains to the use of therapeutic and prophylactic granulocyte transfusions in the treatment of children with cancer, leads to the conclusion that granulocyte transfusions are of definite value in only one clinical setting. That setting is the severely neutropenic patient with Gram-negative septicemia who has failed to improve in response to appropriate antibiotics and in whom prompt bone marrow recovery seems unlikely. The efficacy of therapeutic granulocyte transfusions in other situations has not been demonstrated. Most investigators agree that prophylactic granulocyte transfusions should not be used because the benefits are few and the risks are great.