Erythropoietin in Neoplastic Diseases: Preliminary Results

Anemia is found in about 60% of patients with disseminated neoplasti disease (Ultmann and Golomb 1983). The definition of chronic anemia of cancer as a specific subset of anemia is based on the exclusion of iron depletion, vitamin deficiency, hemolysis, and renal failure as underlying causes (Cartwright 1971) and on the evidence of low or normal serum iron and transferrin levels combined with normal or increased ferritin concentration. So far there is no agreement on whether anemia due to myelophthisis and cytotoxic treatment accompanied by impairment of iron metabolism should be considered as chronic tumor associated.