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Research Paper
Human Recombinant Erythropoietin does not Promote Cancer Growth in Presence of Functional Receptors Expressed in Cancer Cells
Cristóbal Belda-Iniesta, Rosario Perona, Javier de Castro Carpeño, Paloma Cejas, Enrique Casado, Cristina Manguan-Garcíael, Inmaculada Ibanez de Caceres, Isabel Sanchez-Perez, Francisco Bernabeu Andreu, Javier Alves Ferreira, Alfredo Aguilera, Javier de la Peña, Elia Perez-Sánchez, Rosario Madero, Jaime Feliu, María Sereno and Manuel González-Barón
volume 6 | issue 10
October 2007Pages: 1600 - 1605
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Human recombinant erythropoietin (hrEPO) therapy might be associated with tumor progression and death. This effect has been suggested to be secondary to rhEPO binding to its receptor (EPOR) expressed on cancer cells. However, there are several concerns about EPOR functionality when expressed on cancer cells. In this paper we have provided evidence that EPOR expressed in cancer cells could be implicated in proliferation events because a transfection of EPOR siRNA to EPOR-expressing bladder cancer cells resulted in a marked reduction in cell growth. However, these cell lines do not grow in the presence of hrEPO. Furthermore, bladder cancer patients that expressed EPOR in tumor samples had a reduced survival in absence of rhEPO treatment. Therefore, EPOR is implicated in bladder cancer growth but this effect appears to be independent from rhEPO supplementation. Reports which suggest that rhEPO promotes cancer growth due to the expression of EPOR in cancer cells must be observed with caution since in the presence of functional EPOR rhEPO does not promote growth.