Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor therapy is the medical use of man-made copies of G-CSF, a natural protein that tells the bone marrow to make neutrophils, the white blood cells that fight bacterial infection. The two pharmaceutical forms are filgrastim, made in bacteria, and lenograstim, made in hamster cells; a long-acting pegylated form of filgrastim needs fewer injections. The best-established use is in people whose white cell count has fallen after cancer chemotherapy, where the treatment speeds recovery and lowers the death rate from neutropenia, which in turn lets doctors give higher-intensity regimens. It is also used for neutropenia caused by drugs such as clozapine, and to push stem cells out of the marrow into the blood so they can be collected from donors or patients before a transplant. The first trial in chemotherapy-induced neutropenia took place in 1988, and the United States regulator approved filgrastim in 1991 under the brand name Neupogen. Filgrastim was added to the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines in 2015. Investigational uses include radiation exposure and neurological disease. Sweet syndrome, a skin disease, is a recognised side effect. This entry records what is held and studied, never advice.
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Source Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (Wikipedia)
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1. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (Wikipedia)
Medical use, chemotherapy-induced neutropenia
G-CSF was first trialled as a therapy for neutropenia induced by chemotherapy in 1988.
Pharmaceutical variants
In 2015, filgrastim was included on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, a list containing the medications considered to be most effective and safe to meet the most important needs in a health system.
Medical use, routes of administration
It is administered to oncology patients via subcutaneous or intravenous routes.
In Group: Immunologic and Biologic Therapy, Pharmaceutical variants, recombinant forms
The recombinant human G-CSF (rhG-CSF) synthesised in an E. coli expression system is called filgrastim.
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