Anemia treatment does not improve cancer outcome

By Robert Cervin, | Health | 0 Comments

A study reveals that treating anemia around the time of therapy makes for a worse outcome in cancer.
Anemia is a very common side effect of radiotherapy for cancer. It’s been treated with erythropoietin which raises the hemoglobin level.

But, according to doctors at the University of Freiburg, Germany, treating anemia around the time of radiotherapy may not be a good idea. They gave erthyropoietin or placebo to a group of 351 patients from Austria, Germany, France and Switzerland - all of whom had head and neck cancer.

Those on placebo turned out to have a 60 per cent better chance of progression-free survival. The study suggests that the use of erthyopoietin for anemia associated with cancer should be carefully investigated to find out why it seems to have an adverse effect.