Further, elderly patients have poorer bone marrow function compared to younger patients and also seem to be more vulnerable to infectious diseases.
Patients were also required to have adequate renal, hepatic, cardiac and bone marrow function and to be on stable or decreasing dose of steroids in the 2 weeks prior to enrolment.
All patients were required to have a normal hematological profile and adequate liver, kidney, and bone marrow function, and to have recovered from any therapy-related toxicity from previous chemo-, hormone-, immuno- or radiotherapies.
Adequate bone marrow function was to be documented with neutrophils ⩾1.5 × 10 l−1 and platelets ⩾100 × 10 l−10
Declining bone marrow function continues to be a common event during the course of prostate cancer with skeletal metastases.
In addition, patients had to be 18 75 years old, have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 2, have adequate liver, kidney, and bone marrow function, and to have received no prior treatment with capecitabine or platinum compounds.
The M/E ratio is relevant to bone marrow function and also to diseases of bone marrow and peripheral blood such as leukemia and anemia.
Given that CD34+ progenitor cell reduction predicts cardiovascular events beyond classical risk factors (6, 14), we may be persuaded to aggressively treat patients in the early phases after diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in order to preserve marrow function longer and to prevent CVD.
Eligible patients also had to have measurable or evaluable lesions, the ability to orally intake medications, an Eastern Clinical Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, and adequate liver, kidney, and bone marrow functions, similar to our previous study (Mochiki et al, 2006).
