EpoR expression and blood cancers

[VCU2011]

hi everyone, I couldn't find strictly an oncology section in the med forums so I figured this was as close as I was going to get. I am a 2nd year pharmacy student with a quick question for you all. We started Anemia today and began talking about anemia associated with the use of chemotherapy. The professor mentioned that studies done a few years ago showed disease progression in some patients with head and neck cancer, as well as breast cancer. I looked up the articles and they go in depth about cancers that express EpoR could in fact result in Epo shots protecting the cancer cells from chemotherapy. I asked the professor about this effect in blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma and he said that procrit and arenesp shouldnt be used in blood cancers because of this same effect, but I can't find any research to support this statement. Is he implying that all blood cancers would express EpoR? I ask because I know of patients who are doing chemotherapy for lympoma and still receive arenesp shots at the first sign of anemia. Any information you could give in clearing up this matter would be greatly appreciated!

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[Gfunk6]

Look it up on PubMed.

Here's a relevant article to get you started:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...nel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum