Anaemia treatment helps cancer patients

A key molecule is found in red blood cells

Treating anaemia in cancer patients can boost their energy levels and improve their lives, researchers say.

Anaemia is a common side-effect of chemotherapy.

Patients can suffer severe fatigue and feel too tired to live a normal life.

But researchers have found a drug called epoetin alfa can help patients beat their excessive tiredness.

Sufferers have no energy and find it difficult to do simple, everyday things

Professor Lesley Fallowfield, University of Sussex

Epoetin alfa is a drug which mimics the act of a hormone which occurs naturally in the kidneys, stimulating the production of red blood cells in the body.

How fatigue affects the body is poorly understood, though it is known to be partly caused by a fall in levels of a molecule called haemoglobin, found in red blood cells.

Haemoglobin carries oxygen around the body and high levels allow muscles to get more of the oxygen that they need to produce energy.

If this does not happen, patients develop anaemia.

Quality of life

Researchers decided to test if increasing haemoglobin levels with epoetin alfa could help.

Three hundred and seventy-five patients from South Africa and Europe who were due to start chemotherapy course lasting between 12 and 24 weeks were recruited to the study.

Half were given injections of epoetin alfa and the rest a dummy drug, three times a week, during their treatment.

They filled in questionnaires about how they felt physically and emotionally, and how their levels of fatigue and general quality of life compared before, during and after their treatment.

Researchers from the Cancer Research UK psychosocial oncology group at the University of Sussex found energy levels, ability to do everyday tasks and overall quality of life improved dramatically amongst those receiving epoetin alfa.

Overwhelming

Professor Lesley Fallowfield, who led the research, said: "Our new study shows that epoetin alfa can have a profound effect on patients' quality of life during chemotherapy, restoring them with enough energy to complete day to day tasks and lead life as normally as possible during their treatment."

She added: "Fatigue is a major problem for cancer patients - affecting around 80% of those receiving chemotherapy.

"Sufferers have no energy and find it difficult to do simple, everyday things like comb their hair or get dressed.

"It's a condition that is not simply relieved by rest and it can be very frustrating and overwhelming for patients, especially when they are already having difficulty coping with cancer in their lives."

She said the nausea and sickness caused by chemotherapy could be treated with anti-sickness tablets, meaning researchers and doctors had to focus on addressing the "debilitating effects of fatigue".

Sir Paul Nurse, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "In developing treatments that kill cancer cells, we must also focus on maintaining a cancer patient's quality of life.

"Limiting severe fatigue during a course of treatment would enable patients to live a full a life as possible."

The research was published in the British Journal of Cancer.