Blood Transfusion Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Blood Transfusion, including details on blood donation, blood types, leukemia.

Granulocyte transfusion: current status.

Price TH

Puget Sound Blood Center and Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA. thprice@psbc.org

Infection associated with therapy-related neutropenia continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Renewed interest in granulocyte transfusion therapy as treatment for this condition has been generated by the observation that large doses of granulocytes can be obtained from donors who have been stimulated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Granulocytes collected from these donors have been shown to effectively raise the patient's neutrophil count and appear to function normally as judged both by in vitro and in vivo measures. The evidence for clinical efficacy is limited to that of case reports and small series, and the results are not uniform. Randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to determine whether this therapy is useful in either clearing infections or prolonging survival.

Published 2 January 2007 in Semin Hematol, 44(1): 15-23.
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