I touched on this in a post thread, but thought it needed its own, since I dont hear much about it, and it may be important, at least to me it is. If not, I guess I can take this down not to duplicate, but items do get lost in threads.

As mentioned, my new treating hospital oncologist said for me to stop taking epogen shots to treat my anemia, due to the increased risk of speeding up cancer growth, which many know, and knew myself, but it's suppose to be safe when administered under certain blood levels.

I spoke to my local oncologist, who administers my epogen injections, and will stop giving them to me for now, since there may be active cancer, and will do a tranfusion next time instead, when the hemaglobin gets under 8. My hemsglobin is 10.7, still low, but doesn't that doesn't require an injection. My doctor believes my recent blood drop was due to the radiation I had in August, during surgery. I initially saw this doctor as my hematologist fout years ago for a gentic disorder, which caused hemolysis, anemia, requiring transfusions, and maintenance epogen shots. Anemia also increases the risk of cancer, like many other illnesses, and also makes you more radio and chemo resistant. After chemo, my kidneys were damaged, and needed transfusions, and epogen shots more often, so now I have several causes of anemia..hereditary, illness, and Chemo induced.

Epogen shots helps the bone marrow, and kidneys produce more red blood cells. In turn, oxygen is disturbed throughout the bodies organs, and cells. There is risk that epogen can speed up cancers, not cause them, and can increase the tumor size supposedly when it is given when your Hemaglobin is higher than 12, which is almost normal, but otherwise, it should be safe, and helps with the QOL. There are protocols to stop injections when hemaglobin reaches 10 to avoid this any problems. Shots should also not be given during certain times, like when getting radiation treatment. The alternstive to injections are blood tranfusions, which are more costly, require hospitalization, are inconvenient, and carry thier own risks, and you have to wait until your Hemaglobin gets really low.. 8 to get them, so you may be anemic for a longer period of time, but tranfusions do act quickly, and may last longer than the injections...all sounds good, maybe better, but maybe not.

Blood tranfusions have shown to cause more cancer recurrences than those that don't have it, especially in certain cancers. In oral, pharynx, nose and sinus Cancers, those that had blood transfusions, had a 71 percent chance of recurrence versus 31 percent in those that do not have blood transfusions. I had 5 recurrences in less than 3 years.

As mentioned, anemia can cause you to be more radioresistant, and even Chemoresistant due to tumor cell hypoxia, which is harder to treat, and has poorer outcome, and overall survival. There are some drugs, and some in development, therapies to treat anemia, as well as incresing the oxgenation of hypoxic cancer cells, but this has to be studied further, and will probably see more about Hypoxia in the future, along with angiogenesis drugs, since that what the Cancer needs, new blood supplies to grow (angiogenesis), and that leaves the tumor are in a hypoxic state, and more difficult to treat.

I'm getting chemo startying next week, and radiation begins the week after, so what do you do?

1. Get the epogen shots, so you will not be as anemic, and have better tumor control and be less radio and Chemoresistant with increased oxygenation, but run a risk of speeding up cancer and tumor size?

2. Get blood infusions, but, by that time, you will be anemic for an extended period for it to be low enough to get an infusion, and then run the risk of cancer recurrences?

3. Havesting your own blood cancels out the increased cancer recurrence risk, but doesn't solve the problem cause you are putting low oxygen blood back in your body.

4. See about oxygenation treatments, like HBO, hypoix drug drug infusins to increase oxygenation, but that may not be possoble, feasable.

I will have to ask my Radiation Oncologist, what is best, since he did an abstract about anemia and hypoxia, but wanted to put this out there, since I hear very little about it.