Attempt at Quantification of the Cytotoxic Drug-Induced Changes of the Human Bone Marrow Compartments

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Abstract
To describe the changes of the human bone marrow compartments in quantitative terms after repeated courses of adriamycin/cyclophosphamide [during breast cancer therapy], the following 2 methods were studied for their usefulness as indices of bone marrow cellularity: cell counts/ml of bone marrow aspirates obtained under standardized conditions, and cell counts/.mu.l of bone marrow spicules evaluated by morphometric techniques. Applied to a sufficiently large group of patients, both methods were useful to describe the cytotoxic drug-induced changes of the bone marrow compartments in accordance with the following indirect criteria: the results in man are quite compatible with the changes of hematopoiesis described in animal experiments after cytotoxic drugs; the changes of the peripheral blood cell pools (PMN [polymorphonuclear leukocyte] and reticulocytes), which can be assessed quantitatively, correspond to the changes of the respective bone marrow pools as determined by the described indices of cellularity; this quantitative description of drug-induced changes in the human bone marrow compartments yields ''reasonable'' results on the basis of the mechanism of action of the cytotoxic drugs employed and the kinetics of the hematopoietic system studied.