Recombinant Human Erythropoietin iorEPOCIM® for the treatment of anemia in pediatric cancer patients

Recombinant human erythropoietin is widely used in the treatment of anemia due to cancer. A retrospective, longitudinal and descriptive study was conducted at the Jose Luis Miranda Provincial Pediatric University Hospital in Santa Clara, Villa Clara, to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the use of the Cuban product iorEPOCIM® in patients who suffer from anemia due to chemotherapy and / or radiotherapyin in the Hematology-Oncology service. An unintentional probabilistic sample was taken by criteria of 38 hospitalized patients who suffered from anemia, in the period from January 2005 to July 2006. The following variables were taken into account: age, sex, race, nutritional status, hemoglobin, transfusions before and after treatment and dose of erythropoietin. It was found that the drug significantly increased hemoglobin levels after four (55.3%, p=0.001) and eight (81.5%, p=0.035) weeks of treatment, with a significant decrease of transfusion requirements (p=0.027 and p=0.032) for both evaluations. The expected impact was not achieved but there was a therapeutic success, which helped to reduce the number of transfusions in patients. Therefore, the use of the medication for the treatment of anemia in these patients is a valuable alternative to improve their quality of life in general and reduces their risk of getting other conditions.