Amgen infection drug tied to higher cancer risk

Amgen Inc.’s Neupogen, used to combat infections in patients undergoing chemotherapy, may increase the risk of blood cancers in breast cancer patients, according to a study.

A review of medical records by researchers from Columbia University found that patients taking Neupogen had an elevated risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome compared with those not given the drug. The study is from today’s Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study is the second published in recent months to suggest Neupogen may raise the risk of blood cancer. A study by French researchers in the Jan. 20 Journal of Clinical Oncology detected a similar link. Doctors should consider the potential risk with the benefits of the drug, which include fewer infections and hospitalizations of chemotherapy patients, researchers said.

“The point of identifying risk is to figure out in the long run which subsets may be at higher risk for developing these complications so we can offer alternative treatments,” Dawn Hershman, the study’s lead author and assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, said in an interview. “The risks are still very low.”

The study also found a similar risk among patients taking Bayer Schering’s Leukine, which is also prescribed to fight infections in chemo patients.

Of the 906 patients who were treated with Neupogen, 16, or 1.8%, developed leukemia or MDS. Of the 4,604 patients not treated with Neupogen, 48, or 1%, developed the blood cancers.

The study analyzed clinical records, Medicare claims and other information from a National Cancer Institute database from 1991 to 1999.

Shares of Amgen fell 18 cents Tuesday to $69.66.