AbstractTransplantation of haemopoietic stem cells provides a means whereby patients with malignant disease may be treated with increased doses of chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Until recently, the bone marrow has been the sole source of these cells. However, haemopoietic progenitors can also be demonstrated in the blood and it has been known for more than twenty years that peripheral blood mononuclear cells are capable of repopulating the marrow in animals. This phenomenon has recently been reproduced in man. The use of peripheral blood rather than bone marrow for autologous stem cell rescue may have advantages in terms of ready access, availability in patients with compromised pelvic bone marrows, a lower risk of tumour contamination and more rapid granulocyte and immune recovery. However, clinical experience with peripheral blood stem cell autografting is still very small. This review discusses the characteristics of circulating stem cells, the methods by which they can be collected and stored and the information which has come from recent studies of their transplantation in man.
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