Study on endogenous erythropoietin in patients with anemia of cancer

OBJECTIVE:To study the relationship between levels of serum erythropoietin (EPO) and haemoglobin (Hb) in patients with anemia of cancer. METHODS:A total of 135 patients with cancer were detected for serum EPO and Hb. EPO in sera was detected with the chemiluminescent immunoassay and the relationship between EPO and Hb was analyzed with the linear correlation method. RESULTS:The level of serum EPO in normal group was (18.0±7.36) U/L. The level of serum EPO in cancer patients was 26.50 (15.9,56.5) U/L. The level of that in male cancer patients with anemia was 35.7(16.55,74.55) U/L, in female cancer patients with anemia was 44.6(17.3,86) U/L. The level of serum EPO in cancer patients with anemia was higher than that in cancer patients without anemia, and the level of serum EPO in cancer patients group was higher than that in normal group,P=0.000. A negative linear correlation was found between the level of EPO and Hb in cancer patients with anemia, r=-0.576. After a week, the level of Hb in EPO≥100 U/L group was higher than that in EPO100 U/L group. The linear correlation between the level of EPO and the increased Hb after a week was positive,r=0.381. CONCLUSION:There are increased endogenous EPO levels in cancer patients with anemia, which suggests that it is valuable for treatment to detect serum EPO levels in cancer patients with anemia.