Cancer induces
anemia. Impairment of cancer on the blood health are in multiple aspects. In the bone marrow, numbers of erythroid progenitor cells are reduced, blood cell production is suppressed due to lower proliferative response of the erythron to erythropoietin stimulation. In the circulation and metablism, production of the blood hormone erythropoietin is often abrupted, survival of red blood cell is shortened; and iron utilization is impaired.
The anemia results in severe fatigue in more than three-fourths of all cancer patients. Quality of live of the anemic patients are significantly affected. Anemia can also make cancer therapies less effective. A growing body of clinical evidence indicates that the treatment of anemia can significantly improve patients' quality of life and may also improve the clinical outcome
Severe fatigue..
Cancer-related anemia is a cytokine-mediated disorder resulting from complex interactions between tumor cells and the immune system.
chemotherapy and radiotherapy also may induce anemia by killing healthy red blood cells while killing the cancer cells. Statistics found that Patients undergoing chemotherapy--either alone or in combination with radiotherapy--had the highest incidence of anemia.
