The effects of busulphan,hydroxyurea and cytosine arabinoside on the colony forming cells in chronic granulocytic leukaemic and non leukaemic marrow

This study investigated the effects of drugs on the colony forming cells in normal marrow and in the marrow and peripheral blood of patients with CGL. Normal and CGL cells showed similar sensitivities to single doses of busulphan, but CGL cells were more sensitive than normal to hydroxyurea and did not show the characteristic plateau on the dose-response curve. The studies using ara-C indicate that, in CGL, the circulating colony forming cells are proliferating more slowly than those in the marrow.