SAN DIEGO-Lengthy therapy with G-CSF prevents recurrent infections in patients with severe chronic idiopathic neutropenia.
For 116 of 137 patients in an international neutropenia registry, daily, alternate-day, or weekly growth-factor injections reduced the mean infection rate from 20.4 events in the year before treatment to 2.4 events in the next.
The number of infection-free months increased from 2.9 months at baseline to 8.4 months during the first treatment year, hematologist David Dale of the University of Washington told the American Society of Hematology meeting here. Neutrophil levels rose significantly in 93% of patients for whom CBC data were available.
Three patients chose to stop treatment, two didn’t respond to moderate doses, and one dropped out because of back pain. Four halted the drug when the neutropenia resolved.
