Henry David H
Joan Karnell Cancer Center, Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia 19106, USA.
Oncology (Williston Park). 2002 Oct;16(10 Suppl 11):9-12.
Cancer-related anemia, in addition to having detrimental effects on quality of life and adding the risk and inconvenience of blood transfusions, may also be associated with decreased survival or time to progression. Yet despite increasing awareness of the value of treating cancer-related anemia, over 60% of US cancer patients receiving chemotherapy who have hemoglobin values below 10 g/dL are not treated for this condition. Current treatment options include red blood cell transfusions, iron supplementation for iron deficiency, or erythropoietic agents, including recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) and darbepoetin alfa (Aranesp). The articles in this supplement describe the basic scientific research and clinical development of darbepoetin alfa--another safe, effective, and approved treatment for chemotherapy-induced anemia.
癌症相关贫血除了会对生活质量产生不利影响并增加输血的风险与不便外，还可能与生存率降低或疾病进展时间缩短有关。然而，尽管人们越来越意识到治疗癌症相关贫血的价值，但在美国，血红蛋白值低于10 g/dL且正在接受化疗的癌症患者中，超过60%的人并未针对这种情况进行治疗。目前的治疗选择包括红细胞输血、对缺铁患者补充铁剂，或使用促红细胞生成剂，包括重组人促红细胞生成素（rHuEPO）和阿法达贝泊汀（Aranesp）。本增刊中的文章描述了阿法达贝泊汀的基础科学研究和临床开发情况，它是另一种治疗化疗引起的贫血的安全、有效且已获批准的疗法。
