Recommendation of the scientific societies on the treatment of anaemia in cancer patients

Abstract

At present, anaemia in the patients with cancer remains a problem of the first magnitude and of increasing interest due to the high incidence, the major knowledge of its physiopathology, the negative impact on the quality of life of the patient, the influence on the evolution of the disease and its treatments and, finally to the progressive development of new alternatives of treatment, especially the erythropoietic agents. For all this, it becomes necessary to consider the treatment of the anemia of the patients with cancer as a basic part of their support treatment. The erythropoietic agents have demonstrated in the last years that constitute a therapeutic alternative to obtain an increase of the levels of hemoglobin in the patients with anticancer treatments, considering specially that the correction of the anemia not only represents the improvement of an analytical value but also has a significant impact on the quality of life of the patients and diminishes the transfusion requirements. Erythropoietic proteins available for the treatment of the anemia of the patients with cancer are Epoetin-alpha, Epoetin-beta and Darbepoetin-alpha. The existence of different drugs, different doses and intervals of administration, clinical different situations and heterogeneous studies, made necessary the development of documents of consensus and guides of clinical recommendations which provide information on the scientific evidence that supports the use of these agents in medical care. This paper summarizes the main recommendations from panels of experts and scientific societies published so far.