Third Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Six patients with recurrent and/or refractory acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) were treated with recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and cytotoxic agents administered simultaneously. Neither of the two patients who received cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) in combination with G-CSF achieved complete remission. The other four patients, who received multi-drug combination therapy together with G-CSF, all achieved complete remission. No major side effects due to G-CSF were observed. These results demonstrated that the effects of G-CSF in enhancing the sensitivity of leukemic cells to cytotoxic agents and accelerating the recovery of leukocytes could lead to its possible use in the treatment of ANLL.