From October 1992 through October 1994, we retrospectively identified 12 patients who underwent two collections of hematopoietic progenitors because the first one was considered inadequate. Five patients had bone marrow harvest first and underwent apheresis later. Seven patients underwent apheresis first and had bone marrow harvest later. Most patients had advanced cancer and had been heavily pretreated at time of harvesting. The second harvest yielded an appropriate number of progenitors for a proportion of patients. Nine of 12 patients received both cryopreserved marrow and blood cells. Hematopoietic recovery in these patients was somewhat longer than in patients currently receiving blood cells as a support for high dose chemotherapy at our institution; however, except for 2 patient, neutrophil and platelet recovery was observed within a reasonable delay. We conclude that patients who have poor blood cell collection may benefit from bone marrow harvesting, and vice versa.