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British Medical Bulletin 45:582-589 (1989)
© 1989 The British Council

research-article

Haemopoietic growth factors: their role in acute myeloblastic leukaemia

N G Testa and T M Dexter

Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Christie Hospital Manchester, UK
Holt Radium Institute Manchester, UK

Abstract

The chromosome alterations specifically associated with leukaemia are found largely in the regions where the genes for the haemopoietic growth factors (as well as other regulatory molecules or their receptors) are located, indicating a crucial role of the growth factors in leukaemogenesis However, growth factor genes per se do not generally induce leukaemia when inserted into normal haemopoietic cells, although they will do so if they are inserted into immortalized haemopoietic stem cell lines. The response of AML cells to these growth factors is extremely heterogeneous, and the tilting of the balance between self-reproduction (leading to perpetuation of the leukaemic process) and differentiation (‘death’ of the malignant cells) depends on several parameters, on the type and combination of factors to which the cells are exposed, with IL-3 and GM-CSF tending to favour self-renewal, and G-CSF and M-CSF tending to favour differentiation. These findings open the possibility to consider the use of growth factors to control the leukaemic process, although such treatments should be approached with considerable caution, and on an individual patient basis.


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