Littlewood Tim J
Department of Haematology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Drug Saf. 2002;25(7):525-35. doi: 10.2165/00002018-200225070-00006.
Anaemia is common in patients with haematological malignancy, occurring in the majority of patients with malignant disease who are treated with chemotherapy. Most patients will have their anaemia attributed to the cytokine-mediated anaemia of chronic disease. Many of these patients with anaemia will be symptomatic with fatigue, which is the single most important symptom reported. Data from many studies indicate that treatment of patients with anaemia with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) will increase their haemoglobin level, decrease transfusion need and also improve their quality of life. Recent clinical and experimental work suggest that improving the haemoglobin level may improve the patients' prognosis but this finding needs to be confirmed. Treatment of anaemia with rHuEpo in patients with cancer may produce many benefits. Unfortunately, rHuEpo is effective in only around 60% of patients, is slow acting and is expensive. These drawbacks have restricted its use in many healthcare systems. However, a failure to treat anaemia may have important adverse effects for the patient both in terms of their quality of life and, just possibly, in terms of their life expectancy.
贫血在血液系统恶性肿瘤患者中很常见，大多数接受化疗的恶性疾病患者都会出现贫血。大多数患者的贫血归因于细胞因子介导的慢性病贫血。许多贫血患者会出现疲劳症状，这是报告的最重要的单一症状。许多研究数据表明，用重组人促红细胞生成素（rHuEpo）治疗贫血患者会提高其血红蛋白水平，减少输血需求，并改善其生活质量。最近的临床和实验工作表明，提高血红蛋白水平可能会改善患者的预后，但这一发现需要得到证实。用rHuEpo治疗癌症患者的贫血可能会带来许多益处。不幸的是，rHuEpo仅对约60%的患者有效，起效缓慢且价格昂贵。这些缺点限制了它在许多医疗保健系统中的使用。然而，不治疗贫血可能会对患者的生活质量以及可能的预期寿命产生重要的不利影响。
