Abstract
The behavior of sideroblasts following cancer chemotherapy was studied for the evaluation of erythropoiesis. Fifty-nine patients with malignant neoplasms were employed for this research. Several regimens of chemotherapy were carried out for 51 times. Before and after each medication, changes of the type in sideroblastogram were examined. Before medication, 33 iron deficiency type cases and 18 normal type cases were observed in sideroblastogram. In comparison between before- and after- medication, following results were obtained: 23 cases shifted to the right, 27 cases showed no change and one case shifted to the left in the graph.
Next, we divided these cases into two groups, i.e., a group shifted to the right (SG) and an unchanged group (UG). Hematologic depression was studied compairing SG with UG and the results were as follows: erythrocyte depression (SG:7 cases, UG:none), decrease of hemoglobin (SG:4, UG:none), leukopenia (SG:5, UG:none), thrombocytopenia (SG:3, UG:none), NCC depression (SG:7, UG:1), increase in E/M ratio (SG:4, UG:1) and increase in serum Fe (SG:6, UG:none).
These results showed that not only the cases with erythropoietic disturbances but also almost all the cases with other myelo-suppression belonged to the SG. In iron metabolism, sideroblasts were found during the dynamic phase of hemoglobin synthesis from non-hemin iron to hemin iron in erythroblasts. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the appearance of sideroblasts should give an useful information regarding the hematopoietic disturbances following cancer chemotherapy.
