Block on anaemia drug attacked.CANCER charities reacted angrily yesterday to a health watchdog recommendation to halt the use of a drug that offers relief from anaemia. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) published its final draft recommendations yesterday on the use of erythropoietin erythropoietin /eryth·ro·poi·e·tin/ (-poi´e-tin) a glycoprotein hormone secreted by the kidney in the adult and by the liver in the fetus, which acts on stem cells of the bone marrow to stimulate red blood cell production (EPO EPO see erythropoietin. EPO Erythropoietin, see there ) for those becoming anaemic a·nae·mic adj. Variant of anemic. anaemic or US anemic Adjective 1. having anaemia 2. pale and sickly-looking 3. lacking vitality Adj. because of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It believes the clinical effects of EPO have not been adequately researched and says the drug is not cost-effective. EPO is used widely in the US and Europe, where it is regarded as a standard therapy for dealing with cancerrelated anaemia. In the UK, just 1% of cancer patients are given EPO, with around a quarter of patients treated for anaemia with blood transfusions. Cancer charities called the NICE decision - which relates to anaemia caused by cancer treatment and not anaemia caused by the cancer itself - disappointing. A spokeswoman for the ovarian cancer charity Ovacome said: "We are very disappointed on our patients' behalf by NICE's recommendation." |
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