Long-term bone marrow damage in experimental systems and in patients after radiation or chemotherapy.

Long-term bone marrow damage, characterised by stem, progenitor and stromal cell abnormalities is a frequent occurrence after cytotoxic treatments. The relative contributions of each of these components are difficult to analyse, especially in the case of patients who have received combined chemotherapy. The damage may be latent, and not manifested in low numbers of mature functional cells in the blood, but may become apparent as an hypoplastic syndrome at later times. Little tendency of recovery to normal parameters is seen in experimental animals and in patients.