The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7325 p708
13 November 2004

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Erythropoietin may reduce cancer progression

Patients with cancer-related anaemia treated with epoetin beta (NeoRecormon) show a trend to reduced risk of tumour progression, according to a meta-analysis reported at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Vienna last week.

The analysis of nine clinical studies including 1,413 patients — 56 per cent with haematological cancers and 44 per cent with solid tumours — found that the rate of tumour progression was 0.62 events/patient year in those treated with epoetin beta compared with 0.81 in controls. The risk of progression was also reduced by 22 per cent (relative risk 0.78, 95 per cent confidence interval 0.62–0.99, P=0.042). The overall mortality rate in patients treated with epoetin beta was slightly lower than in the control group (0.31 vs 0.32 deaths/patient years, respectively).

Reporting the meta-analysis, Matti Aapro, dean of the multidisciplinary oncology institute, Genolier, Switzerland, said: “These results provide further good-quality data showing that we can treat cancer patients’ anaemia effectively and safely with epoetin beta. They show that this treatment has no negative impact on survival and may even be associated with a reduced risk of tumour progression.” Results also showed a marginal increase in thromboembolic events — with 6.1 per cent of patients treated with epoetin beta having at least one thromboembolic event compared with 4.6 per cent of the control group. However, no increase in thromboembolism-related mortality was seen in patients treated with epoetin beta.

EORTC anaemia guidelines
The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer has published guidelines on the management of anaemia in patients with cancer. The guidelines recommend that anaemia caused by iron deficiency, bleeding, nutritional defects or haemolysis is corrected first, before starting therapy with erythropoietic proteins.