Question for Lani: Aranesp and tumor progression in breast cancer- black box warning

[Paris]

Can anyone fill me in on what the black box label for the anemia drug aranesp means? I just read an article that researchers have discovered that aranesp can lead to tumor progression in breast cancer. How much would one have to receive to have an effect? Where is the tumor progression found? I don't want to sound the alarm bell but having had this treament during and after chemo I am concerned.

[Lani]

most is still unknown

They have found that some cancers have receptors for blood-formation stimulating compounds and then when those are used they actually encourage the cancers to grow more

There may also be other effects related to the increase in oxygen supply etc

It seems to be more complicated than all this--I encourage you to use the search function on the yellow bar above to look up abstracts, links etc posted on this site on the matter

Noone knows what amount might be safe/dangerous

The drug companies have been trying to find out the former as they have no doubt lost a lot of revenue associated with these very expensive drugs

Sorry I don't have time for any more extensive answer--but the bottom line
from my reading is THEY DON"T SEEM TO HAVE IT ALL WORKED OUT YET

Try not to worry. Hundreds of thousands of others took the same drugs and it took them a long time to even get suspicious. If it were terrible, they probably would have had an inkling sooner. Sorry if this doesn't help!

[Joe]

Here's more info:

http://www.pswi.org/irx/Aranesp.pdf

Regards
Joe

[Paris]

Thank you Lani and Joe! I did a search on aranesp which made things somewhat clearer. Unfortunately we sometimes never know what the long term side effects of some of the drugs we have to take are, and I'm not just saying for cancer.