The anaemia of cancer: death by a thousand cuts.
Cancer has a negative systemic impact on its host in addition to its local or metastatic effects, and no cancer complication is more ubiquitous than anaemia, a condition for which there is now a specific remedy, the recombinant growth factor erythropoietin. This is not a trivial therapeutic consideration, because cancer-associated anaemia has an adverse influence on survival regardless of tumour type. However, the pharmacological correction of anaemia with recombinant erythropoietin could promote tumour growth, whereas the use of tumour-necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand as antitumour agents could exacerbate anaemia, thereby perpetuating tissue hypoxia and tumour progression.
Spivak
Jerry L
JL
Division of Hematology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21210, USA. jlspivak@jhmi.edu
D000740:Anemia / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000494:pharmacology; D016923:Cell Death / Q000502:physiology; D004920:Erythropoiesis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D015398:Signal Transduction
D002273:Carcinogens; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004921:Erythropoietin