Trial reportMedical oncology (Northwood, London, England)2008
Survival and erythropoietin receptor protein in tumours from patients randomly treated with rhEPO for palliative care.
Trial report in Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England), 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Erythropoietin or darbepoetin for patients with cancer.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- Erythropoietin or Darbepoetin for patients with cancer--meta-analysis based on individual patient data.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2009Pooled it
- Erythropoietin in tissue engineering and beyond: a multifunctional macromolecule with emerging roles in organoids, immune modulation, and cancer research.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2026Review
- The effect of erythropoietin on normal and neoplastic cells.Biologics : targets & therapy · 2012Article
- Association between pharmaceutical support and basic science research on erythropoiesis-stimulating agents.Archives of internal medicine · 2010Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecombinant erythropoietin (rhEPOalpha) corrects anaemia, improves physical functioning and quality of life in cancer patients. However, published reports have suggested risks for tumour stimulation by provision EPO to patients with remaining tumour cells perhaps related to the presence of EPO receptor protein in tumour tissue. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to exclude a possibility that cancer patients who respond favourably to EPO treatment have mainly tumours with low EPO receptor protein expression.
methodsTumour tissue was evaluated in 87 patients out of 108 randomly allocated for treatment with rhEPOalpha (n = 50) versus controls (n = 58). Tumour cell proliferation (Ki-67 index) and EPO receptor protein expression were evaluated by immunohistochemistry.
resultsEPO treatment varied between 2 and 35 months, in doses between 10,000 and 40,000 Units/week. Ki-67 index did not differ between study and control patients before EPO treatment. Tumour tissue erythropoietin receptor protein was also similar between treated and untreated patients. Around 40% of tumour cells contained EPO receptors. Survival did not differ among EPO treated and control patients analysed as intention to treat, while survival was significantly improved in EPO treated patients per protocol treatment (P < 0.05). Ki-67 index and tumour tissue erythropoietin receptor protein did not predict survival, which systemic inflammation (ESR) did (P < 0.02).
conclusionsOur results support that reported risk to accelerate disease progression by EPO treatment in palliative care is not justified in patients with solid, gastrointestinal cancer despite tumour presence of EPO receptor protein.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.