The bone marrow is where most of yourhematopoietic stem cellsare located.
Cancer and the Bone Marrow
Bone marrow may be unhealthy for a variety of reasons.
In the case of certain blood cancers, the cancer cells grow in the bone marrow.
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And many chemotherapy drugs are toxic to the bone marrow.
This can be an especially serious problem when blood cells rapidly die as a side effect of cancer treatment.
What Is Bone Marrow Stimulation?
Healthy bone marrow responds to the bodys chemical signals that trigger blood cell production.
They are often given in larger doses than the body normally produces.
Different families or progenitors of blood cell types in the marrow may respond to different chemical signals.
Why Is Bone Marrow Stimulation Done?
There are specific circumstances that necessitate the use of bone marrow stimulation.
If you receivecytotoxicchemotherapy, you could have extremely low counts for long periods of time.
Levels of neutrophils, a bang out of WBC, are carefully tracked.
Low levels of neutrophils correlate with the risk of infection.
A small number of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells can be found in the bloodstream.
In some instances, volunteers can donate their stem cells for a marrow/stem cell transplant simply by giving blood.
The remaining blood is returned to the volunteer through the other arm.
Types of Bone Marrow Stimulating Medications
Growth factors are usually given through injections beneath the skin.
Some may also be given intravenously, into a vein.
When Would You Get Growth Factors to Boost WBCs?
G-CSFs may also be given when a personalready hasa fever and neutropenia.
Boosting Platelets
Romiplostim, eltrombopag, avatrombopag, and lusutrombopag are treatments that can help boost platelets.
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