Colony-stimulating factors
Colony-stimulating factors (CSFs), also called white blood cell growth factors, are a new type of treatment that increases the number of white blood cells in your body. This drug is typically recommended for people at a high risk of infection. This includes people older than 65, those with immunocompromised systems, and certain chemotherapy patients.
Not all chemotherapy patients typically receive this drug. Chemotherapy treatment can cause febrile neutropenia (low neutrophil count). This affects up to more than 20 percent [3] of chemotherapy patients and CSFs are the only way to increase white blood cell counts in these people. Doctors do not often give CSFs to chemotherapy patients who are not at a high risk of this condition.
Two common types [4] of colony-stimulating factors are granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF).