ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION High-dose chemoradiotherapy (HDCRT) with autologous stem cell support is increasingly being used to treat selected patients with hematological cancer as well as other malignancies (1). The use of hematopoietic growth factors can significantly increase the number of peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) when administered in the recovery phase after cytotoxic treatment (2). Collection and reinfusion of such cells following high-dose treatment gives several advantages compared to the use of bone marrow (BM). In particular, PBPCs can be collected without general anesthesia, and the use of PBPCs reduces the number of days until neutrophils and platelets have reached pretransplant levels (3-5).
