Hematopoietic Growth Factors
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One way our experts at Cancer Treatment Centers of America use your immune system to fight cancer is by using Hematopoietic Growth Factors (HGFs). The word “hematopoietic” means pertaining to or affecting the growth of blood cells. The hematopoietic system consists of the tissues involved in the production of blood, including bone marrow and lymph nodes.
Hematopoietic Growth Factors are a group of substances with the ability to support hematopoietic (blood cell) colony formation in vitro. This group of substances includes erythropoietin, interleukin-3 and colony-stimulating factors (CSFs).
Erythropoietin stimulates production of erythrocytes, or red blood cells. Interleukin-3 and CSFs can mature cells, have overlapping capabilities to affect progenitor cells (“parent” cells that will develop into a specific type of cell) of several blood cell lines, and can also affect cells outside the hematopoietic system.
HGFs are used to promote bone marrow proliferation in aplastic anemia, following cytotoxic chemotherapy, or following a bone marrow transplant.