The colony-stimulating factors and cancer

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Abstract
The four colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) regulate the generation and some functions of granulocytes and macrophages, and recombinant granulocyte-CSF and granulocyte–macrophage-CSF are used to treat patients with reduced white blood cell levels. How did we come to our understanding of the CSFs and what might the future opportunities be? The four colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) are glycoproteins that regulate the generation and some functions of infection-protective granulocytes and macrophages. Recombinant granulocyte-CSF (G-CSF) and granulocyte–macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF) have now been used to increase dangerously low white blood cell levels in many millions of cancer patients following chemotherapy. These CSFs also release haematopoietic stem cells to the peripheral blood, and these cells have now largely replaced bone marrow as more effective populations for transplantation to cancer patients who have treatment-induced bone marrow damage.