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The colony-stimulating factors and cancer

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 10, pages 425–434 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

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.

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Figure 1: The biological actions of the colony-stimulating factors.

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Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to grant support from the Cancer Council of Victoria; the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda grant number CA22556; and the National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra, program grant number 461219.

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  1. Donald Metcalf is at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia. metcalf@wehi.edu.au,

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Competing interests

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Melbourne) share the patent for GM-CSF and the institutes and staff members obtain royalties from its sale.

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DATABASES

National Cancer Institute Drug Dictionary 

pegfilgrastim

Glossary

Aplastic

Severely reduced cellular content

Commitment

The change, usually irreversible, when a multipotent cell generates or becomes a cell that expresses membrane markers and a gene programme restricting the cell to a particular lineage

Conditioned medium

Medium harvested after incubation of cultured cells or tissues

Febrile neutropenia

Condition of abnormally low blood neutrophil levels plus fever

Immortalization

A change rendering cells capable of proliferation for prolonged (perhaps unlimited) time periods, usually the cells are not neoplastic

Lineage

A subfamily of one type of haematopoietic cell

Maturation

The sequence of morphological and biochemical changes during which immature cells generate or become mature cells

Socs family

A family of cytokine (regulator)-induced cytoplasmic inhibitors of signalling from regulator-activated membrane receptors

Synergy

Enhanced cellular responses when two or more regulators interact on target cells

Thrombocytopenia

Abnormally low blood platelet levels

Transformed

Usually indicating an irreversible change from normal to neoplastic cells

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Metcalf, D. The colony-stimulating factors and cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 10, 425–434 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2843

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