The effect of continuous intravenous administration of rhG-CSF after chemotherapy in lung cancer patients

Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is used for promotion of recovery from the myelosuppression state after chemotherapy. After lung cancer chemotherapy, G-CSF is also used in supportive therapy. G-CSF is administered subcutaneously in general, once a day. In this clinical trial, we tried G-CSF continuous intravenous administration for 8 hours and compared the effect with subcutaneous administration. Four lung cancer patients were administered 100 μg recombinant human G-CSF intravenously for 8 hours after 2nd chemotherapy. These patients were injected with the sonic dose of rhG- CSF subcutaneously after the 1st chemotherapy. The continuous intravenons infusion method shortened the duration 1.7 days on average compared with the subcutaneous injection method. Moreover, this method was effective, compared with the control group, who were injected with 100 μg rhG-CSF subcutaneously after the 2nd chemotherapy just as for the 1st chemotherapy. No side effects associated with continuous intravenous infusion were observed. The serum G- CSF level and white blood cell count showed an inverse relation, and the G- CSF level peaked at nadir. We considered the 8 hr continuous intravenous infusion method effective for patients with prolonged neutropenia following chemotherapy.