Iron Deficiency Anemia Coexists with Cancer Related Anemia and Adversely Impacts Quality of Life.

Cancer related anemia (CRA) adversely affects patient Quality of Life (QoL) and overall survival. We prospectively studied the prevalence, etiology and the impact of anemia on QoL in 218 Indian cancer patients attending a tertiary referral hospital. The study used the sTfR/log Ferritin index to detect iron deficiency anemia and assessed patient QoL using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anemia (FACT-An) tool, standardized for language. Mean patient age was 51±13 years and 60% were female. The prevalence of cancer related anemia in this setting was 64% (n = 139). As expected, plasma ferritin did not differ significantly between anemic (n = 121) and non-anemic cancer patients (n = 73). In contrast, plasma sTfR levels were significantly higher in anemic cancer patients compared to non-anemic cancer patients (31 nmol/L vs. 24 nmol/L, p = 0.002). Among anemic cancer patients, using the sTfR/log Ferritin index, we found that 60% (n = 83) had iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Interestingly, plasma sTfR levels were significantly higher in cancer patients with CRA+IDA (n = 83) compared with patients having CRA (n = 38) alone (39 nmol/L vs. 20 nmol/L, p