Perioperative erythropoietin administration in patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer: prospective randomized double-blind study.

Objective: To investigate the effect of recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) administration on perioperative hemoglobin concentrations and on the number of blood transfusions in patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal tract malignancies.

Summary Background Data: Erythropoietin has been shown to improve the yield of autologously predonated blood and to reduce the subsequent requirements for homologous blood transfusions in cancer patients.

Methods: In this double-blind placebo-controlled study, 31 cancer patients received subcutaneous r-HuEPO in a dose of 300 IU/kg body weight plus 100 mg iron intravenously (study group) and 32 patients received placebo medication and iron (control group).