Guest guest Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 From the Med. Adv. - The neutrophils, the cells which are low when someone is neutropenic, are very important for fighting infections. When they are low (below 1000 or 1.0 depending upon the scale) someone is at risk of a serious infection. Neulasta, Neupogen (GCSF), and Leukine (GMCSF) are all growth factors for neutrophils. They help increase the WBC, but only by increasing the neutrophils. If someone has a normal WBC, but low neutrophils, that indicates that some other cells are making up the balance. In people with CLL, that will most likely be lymphocytes. For example, if someone has a WBC of 10,000, and 9500 are CLL cells, then there are only 500 neutrophils. (There are other WBC cells which I am ignoring for simplicity.) So this is an example of a patient with a normal WBC who might benefit from Neupogen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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