Aranesp & Procrit warnings.

Possibly important article from today's NY Times (full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/health/11anemia.html

Steve J

SILVER SPRING, Md., May 10 — Bowing to safety concerns, government
medical advisers urged on Thursday that additional restrictions be put
on the use of drugs that treat anemia in cancer patients.

The recommendations by an advisory committee to the Food and Drug
Administration followed a flurry of studies suggesting that the drugs,
meant to help patients cope with chemotherapy, might actually be making
their cancer worse or hastening their deaths.

The drugs — Aranesp from Amgen and Procrit from Johnson & Johnson — are
used by about a half-million American cancer patients a year and have
billions of dollars in annual sales.

"Smitty88" <snijuniper@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:GbWdnZ794OPQNtnbnZ2dnUVZ_qbinZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> Possibly important article from today's NY Times (full article at:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/health/11anemia.html
>
> Steve J
>
> SILVER SPRING, Md., May 10 — Bowing to safety concerns, government
> medical advisers urged on Thursday that additional restrictions be put
> on the use of drugs that treat anemia in cancer patients.
>
> The recommendations by an advisory committee to the Food and Drug
> Administration followed a flurry of studies suggesting that the drugs,
> meant to help patients cope with chemotherapy, might actually be making
> their cancer worse or hastening their deaths.
----------------
Annoyingly, the article doesn't say in what way Procrit could have made my
cancer worse. It does specifically mention breast cancer. And I got
Procrit all through my chemo. This is unpleasant.

Eva