Erythropoietin does not improve survival among radiotherapy patients with head and neck cancer who have mild to moderate anemia, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology.

Anemia has been associated with poor local control and lower survival rates for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Earlier studies have found that human erythropoietin helps raise hemoglobin levels in anemic patients receiving radiation therapy. The current study was designed to discover whether administering human erythropoietin would not only increase hemoglobin levels in anemic patients, but also improve cancer treatment response and tumor control.

Despite significantly improving hemoglobin levels in the 148 patients enrolled in the study, the addition of hormone therapy to radiation therapy failed to improve tumor control or survival rates. However, researchers did not find any statistically significant worsening of cancer outcomes in erythropoietin-treated patients, in contrast to a similar study published last year in The Lancet.

“We discovered that you can’t simply correct anemia and think that it will magically improve outcomes for those suffering from head and neck cancers,” said Mitchell Machtay, MD, lead author of the study. “This study suggests that the whole relationship between cancer, blood counts and the amount of oxygen in the tumor is far more complex than once thought.”