Etiocholanolone in the Evaluation of Marrow Reserves in Patients Receiving Cytotoxic Agents

THE ADMINISTRATION of Cytotoxic drugs for the control of neoplastic growth or immunosuppression often results in the depressed maturation of normal bone mar-row elements. While drug-induced anemia and thrombocytopenia can be at least par-tially corrected with red cell and platelet transfusions, severe granulocytopenia and the attendant risk of bacterial and fungal infections present the greatest problem in treatment (1, 2). Leukocytes are difficult to obtain in large numbers; besides, their effectiveness has never been clearly demon-strated (3). Thus, reliable estimation of the bone marrow granulocyte mass before treatment would be a valuable adjunct