title: Clinical use of haematological growth factors in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection.
abstract: HIV-infected patients commonly experience haematological disturbances including anemia, neutropenia or thrombocytopenia. Bone marrow failure may be caused by HIV itself, or by secondary involvement by opportunistic pathogens and malignancy. The need for multiple concomitant suppressive treatments may increase the risk of cytopenias. Strategy to reduce both anemia and neutropenia as well as to improve the haematological tolerance to myelotoxic agents have been developed by using haematological growth factors. So far, erythropoietin and granulocyte(macrophage) colony-stimulating factors have been successfully used in clinical trials including HIV-patients with either zidovudine-associated anemia or severe HIV or drug-induced neutropenia. However, according to the cost of these palliative approaches, there is a need for more reliable data showing that these growth factors could really have a major impact on the patient's compliance to therapy, reduction of hospitalization and infection rate and improvement of the overall survival.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Saint-Pierre University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hermans
mesh_terms: D000386:AIDS-Related Complex / Q000150:complications*; D000740:Anemia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015497:HIV-1; D006801:Humans; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D004921:Erythropoietin; D016178:Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor