Acceleration of bone-marrow recovery by pre-treatment with cyclophosphamide in patients receiving high-dose melphalan.

7 patients with advanced malignant melanoma who were given cyclophosphamide (500 mg intravenously) 7 days before a high dose of melphalan (140 mg/m2) had a more rapid recovery of the peripheral white-cell count than did 4 patients who received melphalan alone. "Priming" by cyclophosphamide might be a practicable means of offsetting the bone-marrow toxicity of some chemotherapy regimens and it may permit higher doses of drugs to be given safely.