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Old Wed Aug 18, 2010, 08:33 AM
susansr susansr is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Posts: 49
EPO info

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lisa V View Post
Susan, EPO stands for erythropoietin, which is what the kidneys produce to help manufacture red blood cells. There are several growth factor medications (Procrit, Epogen and Aranesp are among the better known ones) which can be given as injections to help boost your erythropoetin level.

The thing is, many AA patients often already have an overabundance of EPO, since the kidneys tend to go into overdrive trying to replace those missing RBCs. For that reason, doctors often don't think to try it with AA. Our doc tried Procrit on Ken just to see if it would do any good, and was actually kind of surprised when it seemed to be helping. It wasn't immediately clear, however, whether his counts were simply rising from the ATG or from the Procrit, so we tested it out by stopping the injections for a while. The growth factors are extremely expensive, so it was important for us to make sure it was really worth it! It definitely did make a difference, and kept him above tx level for a couple of years while his counts recovered.

Even with the shots his Hgb was still lower than normal to start (in the 9s), but once it got up to 12.5 we started weaning him off it by reducing his dosage, and then the frequency, and finally stopping completely. His last shot was two years ago, and he's been able to maintain Hgb above 13.0 on his own since then. Of course he's still taking a (fairly low) maintenance dose of cyclosporine, so that helps too.

BTW, our hem/onc considers Hgb to be the only really important RBC to measure, since that is what affects your oxygen-carrying capacity. If my understanding is correct, Hct has more to do with volume. It will likely go up and down too when your Hgb does, but by itself I don't think it has as much impact on the way you feel or function.

In any case, something to think about. As I say, it doesn't work for everyone, but you never know unless you try it.
Thanks for the valuable info. will discuss with the doc.
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