Anemia drugs up death risk in cancer patients: study

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Treating cancer patients with anemia drugs increases their risk of blood clots and death, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday, confirming concerns about these widely used drugs.

Researchers said the drugs, including Amgen Inc's Aranesp and Johnson & Johnson's Procrit, raised the risk of death by 10 percent in patients who took them, a finding that could not be explained by the higher blood clot risk alone.

"Our findings, in conjunction with basic science studies, raise the concern that the drug may be stimulating cancer and shortening cancer patients' survival," Dr. Charles Bennett of Northwestern University in Chicago said in a statement.

The study, which appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, sent shares of both companies lower in extended-hours trading on Monday.

"The findings of mortality are new and are different from prior reports," Bennett said in a telephone interview. He said the drugs, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), also increased the risk of blood clots in the lungs and legs by 57 percent in cancer patients, confirming other findings.

An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is due to discuss safety concerns about the drugs on March 13.

Eric Snyder, an analyst at Mehta Partners, said most investors expected the FDA panel meeting to result in tighter restrictions on the use of anemia drugs.

Worldwide sales of Aranesp fell 12 percent to $3.6 billion in 2007 compared with 2006, while sales of Procrit fell 9.4 percent to $2.9 billion over the same period.