Strategy for the Use of Erythropoetin Alpha to Maintain Hemoglobin Level in Breast Cancer Patient Treated with Anthracycline-base of Adjuvant Chemotherapy
Dimyati Achmad, Yusuf Hariady Hariady, Benny Isakh, Maman Abdurrahman, Ahmad Faried
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the value of erythropoietin alpha (epoetin) administration, as an alternative treatment of anemia in the operable breast cancer patients.
Methods: This is a multicenter phase III randomized clinical trial to evaluate the value of epoetin administration among anemic breast cancer patients who are undergoing anthracyclin-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Sixty four patients were incuded in this trial with initial hemoglobin (Hb) level of 10–12 g/dL. The patients were randomly distributed into two groups: one group received aministration of 40,000 IU epoetin/week for six times a week after operation and the other did not. In the third week after the operation, both groups were started on a 6 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with three weeks intervals. Hb levels were evaluated during every chemotherapy cycle.
Results: The Hb levels in the epoetin group were always above 10 g/dL up until the end of the sixth chemotherapy cycle or until the twenty first week post operation without blood transfusion.
Conclusions: The administration of epoetin 3 weeks prior and 3 weeks after the first cycles of chemotherapy, maintains a sufficient/normal Hb level in breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy.Keywords: Anthracyclin-based chemotherapy, breast cancer, erythropoietin alpha
DOI: 10.15850/ijihs.v1n1.102
Article Metrics
Abstract view : 535 times
PDF - 292 times
This Journal indexed by
IJIHS is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License <div class="statcounter"><a title="web analytics" href="http://statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img class="statcounter" src="//c.statcounter.com/10168322/0/36af1ad9/0/" alt="web analytics"></a></div> View My Stats