Bone marrow uptake of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose following treatment with hematopoietic growth factors: initial evaluation.

Hematopoietic growth factors (HGF) such as G-CSF and GM-CSF stimulate cell growth of the bone marrow and thereby mitigate the myelotoxic effect of chemotherapy. Using 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) for therapy response monitoring of patients with small-cell lung cancer, both an extension and an intensification of thoracic bone marrow uptake were noted in patients treated with HGF (n = 5) compared to those patients without HGF supplementation (n = 11). FDG uptake was a very sensitive marker of stimulated hematopoiesis, and both the extension and the intensification of uptake have to be noted during HGF therapy.