Abstract

Anemia is a frequent debilitating problem and complication of cancer, both at the time of diagnosis and during treatment. It negatively affects the quality of life of cancer patients. Despite being more common in hematologic malignancies, anemia is frequently seen in solid tumors. Most studies show the relationship of anemia in patients with solid tumors or leukemias after the start of chemotherapy. My study aims to find the prevalence and type of anemia in patients diagnosed with malignant solid tumors prior to the start of chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the patients that came with treatment naive solid malignancies filling the study criteria were examined and detailed clinical history was taken and thorough physical examination was done. The anemia profile was evaluated by using the following tests: Complete Blood Count with peripheral blood smear, serum iron, TIBC, serum ferritin, reticulocyte count, vitamin B12, Serum LDH. RESULTS: The mean age of the cases of solid malignancies in our study was found to be 60 years and out of the 90 cases, 61 were females. The most commonly noted solid malignancies in our study were gynecological (36.6%) out of which the highest number of cases were of the uterus (25.6%), ovaries (9.9%) and cervix (1.1%). The prevalence of anemia increased from 35.4% in stage I – II to 45.2% in stage III and 53.6% in stage IV patients. Out of the 82 patients with anemia, 73 patients (89%) had microcytic hypochromic anemia. Rest of the patients had anemia of normocytic normochromic type (2.4%). In our study, majority of gynecological tumor patients with anemia had a history of bleeding (93.3%) which was a contributing factor for the higher anemia prevalence observed among these tumor types. CONCLUSION: The present study has shown that the main etiology of anemia in Indian cancer patients is iron deficiency. It is a widespread and serious problem especially among gynecological, colorectal, lung and breast cancer patients. Its early evaluation and management could reduce the incidence of treatment-related anemia in cancer patients. Measures directed towards characterization and treatment of anemia should be incorporated as an integral part of cancer management protocols. Patients with anemia should be closely monitored, and a vigilant management strategy should be implemented to reduce the risk of morbidity associated with anemia.

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