THE EFFECT OF CLENBUTEROL AND RECOMBINANT ERYTHROPOIETIN ON TUMOR-GROWTH AND THE ANEMIA CAUSED BY THE WALKER-256 CARCINOSARCOMA

In patients with advanced cancer, anemia is a common complication indi cative of a poor prognosis. Attempts to alleviate this have met with m ixed success and interventions including erythropoietin often fail to elicit an appropriate response. We have used rats implanted with the W alker 256 carcinosarcoma as a model of non-responsive anemia. This stu dy demonstrates that the provision of recombinant erythropoietin in th e presence of clenbuterol, a beta(2) agonist, attenuates both the canc er induced anemia and the growth of the tumor in this model. We hypoth esize that this treatment relieves the tumor induced inhibition of hem atopoiesis, which allows for not only an increase in hematocrit but an increased immunosurveillance resulting in tumor suppression.