SynthesisBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2013
Erythropoietin doping in cycling: lack of evidence for efficacy and a negative risk-benefit.
Synthesis in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 3 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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of erythropoietin on athletic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Population data provide evidence against the presence of a set point for hemoglobin levels or tissue oxygen delivery.Physiological reports · 2019Pooled it
- Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Healthy Athletes: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses.Sports healthPooled it
- Additive effect of erythropoietin use on exercise-induced endothelial activation and hypercoagulability in athletes.European journal of applied physiology · 2020Trial
- Sensitivity and specificity of detection methods for erythropoietin doping in cyclists.Drug testing and analysis · 2019Trial
- Recombinant human erythropoietin does not affect several microvascular parameters in well-trained cyclists.Physiological reports · 2018Trial
- Treatment of optic neuritis with erythropoietin (TONE): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial-study protocol.BMJ open · 2016Trial
- RhEPO improves time to exhaustion by non-hematopoietic factors in humans.European journal of applied physiology · 2016Trial
- Erythropoiesis-Targeted Doping in Sports: From Improved Oxygen Transport to Cardiovascular Risk.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2026Review
- Cardiovascular Implications of the Enhanced Games: Performance Enhancing Drugs in Competition and Recreation.Sports medicine - open · 2026Review
- Development of Detection Method Using Dried Blood Spot with Next-Generation Sequencing and LabDroid for Gene Doping Control.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Effects on Well-Trained Athletes' Endurance Performance: A Systematic Review.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Review
- Article
- Hemoglobin modulation affects physiology and patient reported outcomes in anemic and non-anemic subjects: An umbrella review.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Review
- Article
- An Abductive Inference Approach to Assess the Performance-Enhancing Effects of Drugs Included on the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2021Review
- Neurostimulation, doping, and the spirit of sport.Neuroethics · 2021Article
- Current Anti-Doping Crisis: The Limits of Medical Evidence Employing Inductive Statistical Inference.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Article
- Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for Performance-Enhancing Effects.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Imagine a medicine that is expected to have very limited effects based upon knowledge of its pharmacology and (patho)physiology and that is studied in the wrong population, with low-quality studies that use a surrogate end-point that relates to the clinical end-point in a partial manner at most. Such a medicine would surely not be recommended. The use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) to enhance performance in cycling is very common. A qualitative systematic review of the available literature was performed to examine the evidence for the ergogenic properties of this drug, which is normally used to treat anaemia in chronic renal failure patients. The results of this literature search show that there is no scientific basis from which to conclude that rHuEPO has performance-enhancing properties in elite cyclists. The reported studies have many shortcomings regarding translation of the results to professional cycling endurance performance. Additionally, the possibly harmful side-effects have not been adequately researched for this population but appear to be worrying, at least. The use of rHuEPO in cycling is rife but scientifically unsupported by evidence, and its use in sports is medical malpractice. What its use would have been, if the involved team physicians had been trained in clinical pharmacology and had investigated this properly, remains a matter of speculation. A single well-controlled trial in athletes in real-life circumstances would give a better indication of the real advantages and risk factors of rHuEPO use, but it would be an oversimplification to suggest that this would eradicate its use.
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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.