Hypoxia can also occur when there is poor ventilation of the lungs such as occurs in chronic lung disease, emphysema and in cardiovascular disease. Excess erythropoietin results from chronic exposure to low oxygen levels or from rare tumours that produce high levels of erythropoietin.
It causes a condition known as polycythaemia which means high red blood cell count. In many people, polycythaemia does not cause any symptoms.
However, there are some general and non-specific symptoms including weakness, fatigue, headache, itching, joint pain and dizziness. If you have too little erythropoietin, which is usually caused by chronic kidney disease, there will be fewer red blood cells and you will have anaemia.
Erythropoietin has been made synthetically for the treatment of anaemia that results from chronic kidney failure. It is also given to patients with some rarer types of cancer. Some professional athletes have used this type of erythropoietin known as blood doping to improve their performance, particularly to increase endurance. Artificially increasing your erythropoietin levels produces more haemoglobin and red blood cells and therefore improves the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to tissues, particularly muscles.
This can improve performance capacity, although this type of doping practice is banned by most professional sport committees. Yes, erythropoietin hormone levels can be measured in the blood. Some of these trials raised concerns that erythropoietin may cause a cancer to grow. But many of these trials used erythropoietin in ways that are not now recommended for people with cancer.
The results of these trials were reviewed by the drug safety authorities. They recommend that some people with cancer will benefit from having erythropoietin. Follow any storage instructions given by your pharmacist.
Erythropoietin should be stored in the fridge in its original packaging. Take the injection out of the fridge 30 minutes before you use it, so it can come up to room temperature. Some medicines can affect how this treatment works or be harmful when you are having it.
Always tell your cancer doctor about any drugs you are taking or planning to take, such as:. Tell other doctors, pharmacists or dentists who prescribe or give you medicines that you are having this cancer treatment.
You can visit the electronic Medicines Compendium eMC for more detailed information about your treatment. Your doctor will advise you not to get pregnant or make someone pregnant while having this treatment. The drugs may harm a developing baby. It is important to use contraception during your treatment and for a while after treatment finishes. Your doctor, nurse or pharmacist can tell you more about this.
You are advised not to breastfeed while having this treatment, or for some time after treatment finishes. This is because the drugs could be passed to the baby through breast milk. If you need medical treatment for any reason other than cancer, always tell the doctors and nurses you are having cancer treatment.
Give them the contact details for your cancer doctor so they can ask for advice. If you think you need dental treatment, talk to your cancer doctor or nurse. Always tell your dentist you are having cancer treatment. If you have cancer, you may be able to get a Macmillan Grant to help with the extra costs of cancer.
Find out who can apply and how to access our grants. Erythropoietin EPO. On this page. What is erythropoietin? But they may use erythropoietin if: you are likely to need blood transfusions often, because of chemotherapy blood transfusions are not suitable for you, because you have other health conditions.
How erythropoietin works Erythropoietin is a type of protein called a growth factor. These treatments are often called EPO. How erythropoietin is given You have erythropoietin as an injection under the skin subcutaneously. About side effects When you have erythropoietin injections, the amount of the protein in your body becomes much higher than normal.
Serious and life-threatening side effects Some cancer treatments can cause severe side effects. Contact the hospital Your nurse will give you telephone numbers for the hospital.
More information We cannot list every side effect for this treatment. Common side effects Allergic reaction Rarely, some people have an allergic reaction to erythropoietin. Contact the hospital straight away on the number you have been given if you develop any of the following: red, warm and itchy bumps on the skin like nettle rash swelling of the lips, tongue or throat breathlessness, wheezing, a cough or sudden difficulty breathing tight chest or chest pain.
Feeling sick or being sick You may feel sick during treatment with erythropoietin. Diarrhoea This treatment may cause diarrhoea. Blood clot risk Cancer can increase the risk of a blood clot. Erythropoietin may increase this risk further. Symptoms of a blood clot include: pain, redness or swelling in a leg or arm breathlessness chest pain.
Consistent with the advancing science in anti-doping, work is done on an ongoing basis on all detection methods to refine their sensitivity and the interpretation of results. In the case of EPO, based on expert consensus, new interpretation criteria are introduced as science advances for a more discriminant reading of EPO results.
It is important to remember that samples can be stored and later re-analysed as science advances. The statute of limitations set forth in the World Anti-Doping Code is 8 years. In order to further improve detection of abnormal blood profiles, WADA is leading the development of a strategy against doping in sport called the " Athlete Passport ", which is based on the longitudinal follow-up of an athlete's biological variables.
Skip to main content. Repeated doses of EPO can also stimulate the development of antibodies directed against EPO, which can result in anaemia. The long-term health risks of sustained EPO use are still unclear.
This was the first time blood was used for drug testing. Methods such as isoelectric focusing, which is the separation of proteins based on their electrical charge, and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, which is the separation of proteins based on their size, are used to detect EPO.
0コメント