The hematopoietic system plays roles that are crucial for survival of the host: delivery of oxygen to tissues, arrest of accidental blood leaking from blood vessels, and fending off of invading microbes by humoral, cell-mediated, and phagocytic immunity. The activity of the hematopoietic system is staggering: daily, a normal adult produces approximately 2.5 billion erythrocytes, 2.5 billion platelets, and 1 billion granulocytes per kilogram of body weight. This production is adjusted in a timely fashion to changes in actual needs and can vary from nearly none to many times the normal rate depending on needs which vary from day to day, or even minute to minute. In response to a variety of stimuli, the cellular components of the blood are promptly increased or decreased in production to maintain appropriate numbers to optimally protect the host from hypoxia, infection, and hemorrhage. How does this all happen and happen without over or under responding? There has been extraordinary growth in our understanding ofhematopoiesis over the last two decades. Occupying center stage is the pluripotent stern cell and its progeny. Hematopoietic stern cells have been characterized by their capacity for self renewal and their ability to proliferate and differentiate along multiple lineages. Few in number, the stern cell gives rise to all circulating neutrophils, erythrocytes, lymphoid cells, and platelets. In hematopoietic transplantation, the stern cell is capable of restoring long-term hematopoiesis in a lethally irradiated host.

Inhalt
I. Biology of Hematopoietic and Lymphopoietic Cytokines.- 1. Cytokines, Growth Factors, and Hematopoiesis.- 2. The Interaction of Cytokines with Stem Cell and Stromal Cell Physiology.- 3. The Interaction of Cytokines with T-cell and Natural Killer Cell Physiology.- 4. Improving on Nature by Re-Engineering Hematopoietic Growth Factors.- II. Management of Neutropenia and Neutropenic Fever.- 5. The Influence of Colony Stimulating Factors on Neutrophil Production, Distribution, and Function.- 6. Evidence-Based Use of Hematopoietic Cytokines in Clinical Oncology.- 7. Economic, Public Health, and Policy Implications of Hematopoietic Growth Factors, High-Dose Chemotherapy, and Stem Cell Rescue.- 8. Outpatient Management of Neutropenic Fever: Antibiotics, Growth Factors or Both?.- 9. The Use of Hematopoietic Growth Factors for Recruitment of Leukocytes for Transfusion.- III. Management of Anemia.- 10. Pathophysiology of the Anemia of Malignancy.- 11. The Use of Recombinant Erythropoietin in the Treatment and Prevention of Cancer and Chemotherapy Related Anemia.- IV Management of Thrombocytopenia.- 12. Regulation of Human Megakaryocytopoiesis.- 13. The Effects of Multilineage Cytokines on Platelet Recovery.- 14. Clinical Studies of Thrombopoietin.- V. The Role of Cytokines to Enhance Cancer Chemotherapy.- 15. Dose Intensification in Solid Tumor Chemotherapy.- 16. Conventional and High Dose Chemotherapy for Lymphomas.- 17. Hematopoietic Growth Factors in Acute Leukemia.- VI. Management of Marrow Failure States.- 18. Cytokines for the Treatment of Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Other Bone Marrow Failure States.- VII The Use of Cytokines in Blood and Marrow Transplantation.- 19. Stem Cell Collection for Hematopoietic Transplantation: Stem Cell Sources, Mobilization Strategies, and Factors that Influence Yield.- 20. Mechanisms of Growth Factor Mobilization of Hematopoietic Progenitors.- 21. The Use of Cytokines to Enhance Collection of Stem Cells for Marrow and Blood Transplantation.- 22. The Use of Cytokines During Blood and Marrow Transplantation.