The present issue of “Postępy Nauk Medycznych” (“Progress in Medicine”) contains two original articles and series of reviews concerning relevant problems of clinical and experimental medicine.

Two original articles came from Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Silesian Medical University

The authors of the first original article presented the assessment of effectiveness and safety of the third autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) in 4 patients with recurrent, chemo-sensitive multiple myeloma. They concluded that this procedure seems to be safe, but due to a small number of studied patients it is difficult to draw unambiguous conclusions on long-term efficacy of AHSCT.

The second original article contains report on the use plerixafor, a CXCR4 (chemokine 4) antagonist, as mobilization regimen of hematopoietic stem cells in lymphoma and myeloma patients. The study involved 21 patients treated over 2 year period. According to the results achieved by these authors treatment with plerixafor is effective method of stem cell mobilization, especially in those patients requiring autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in which mobilization with G-CSF in combination with chemotherapy failed.