Neutrophil recovery time and adverse side effects in acute leukemia patients treated with intensive chemotherapy and concomitant G or GM-CSF.

OBJECTIVE: Compare the speed of neutrophil recovery and the unwanted secondary effects in two groups of acute leukemia patients treated with intensive chemotherapy and G or GM-CSF. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous G-CSF at a daily dose of 300 micrograms for adults and 150 micrograms for children or GM-CSF at 400 and 200 micrograms respectively, starting With chemotherapy and stopping when the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) reached 500/microL. Secondary effects were attributed to growth factors only when not coincidental with infection, chemotherapy or hemoderivative transfusion. RESULTS: 34 patients were included in the G-CSF arm and 37 in the GM-CSF arm. Distribution by sex, age, type of acute leukemia, induction or post-induction therapy, as well as initial neutrophil count were comparable among the two groups. Mean time for ANC > 500/microL was 19 days for G-CSF group and 16 days for GM-CSF group (p = 0.08). There were no statistically significant differences in secondary unwanted side effects between the two groups. There were two cases of growth factor-related-fever in the G-CSF group and five in the GM-CSF group (p = 0.25). There was a case of systemic reaction in the G-CSF group. Twenty-nine patients in each group presented febrile neutropenia episodes (p = 0.45). The only factor that showed significance on neutrophil recovery speed was type of leukemia (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: We found no clear advantage of one growth factor over the other for this indication.