Approximately 400 million new white blood cells are formed in our bodies every hour. Found mainly in our bone marrow, they are our main defense against infection.

During cancer treatment these cells are destroyed at a rate the body can't replace and this is why bone marrow transplants have been used after chemotherapy.

But now a method of stimulating the growth of new blood cells, in the patient's own body, is revolutionising the treatment of cancer.

In the mid 1960's, scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne developed a way of growing white blood cells in the laboratory.

Professor Don Metcalf and his colleagues found that the production of new blood cells needed stimulation by special hormones called colony stimulating factors or CSF's.

It took nearly 30 years to discover and mass produce these CSFs. And not only did the CSFs work when tested in the body, they stimulated blood cell formation by prompting blood stem cells, which turn into blood cells, to leave their normal home in the bone marrow and travel into the blood stream.

"Most cancer patients now, who need what amounts to a bone marrow transplant, are getting instead cells taken from the blood just like giving a blood tranfusion and they're given back to the patient after treatment."

Blood stem cell transplants have revolutionised cancer therapy, by nearly completely replacing bone marrow transplants after chemotherapy. And it means patients can undergo higher doses of chemotherapy with a greater possibility of recovery.

Over a million cancer patients world-wide have now been successfully treated with this discovery.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
1G Royal Parade
Parkville VIC 3050