Cancer Related Fatigue (CRF) is a real side effect of cancer and of cancer treatment. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network defined CRF as "a persistent, subjective sense of tiredness related to cancer or cancer treatment that interferes with usual functioning."
Cancer patients very rarely describe the feeling as "fatigue." They describe the feeling as being "bone tired." What they are saying is that they feel emotionally, mentally, and physically drained.
Most cancer patients simply accept fatigue as a part of having cancer and don't ask for help in coping with it. But there is help.
One of the major causes of CRF is anemia. Anemia in cancer patients can be caused by a variety of things like bleeding, bone marrow involvement of the disease, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, dysfunction, of organs like the heart, lung, liver, or kidney disease, or nutritional deficiencies.
When the cause of CRF is anemia, blood transfusions can help. But blood transfusions are not the answer for all cancer patients. Patients who are bleeding or having other symptoms don't benefit from blood transfusions, and blood transfusions are not without risk. Although blood transfusions are relatively safe and there are a great many precautions in place, blood transfusions can lead to transmission of viruses, allergic reactions, and lung injury.
Another very effective way that physicians can treat the anemia that is responsible for CRF is to stimulate the bone marrow to make more red blood cells.
There is a protein called erythropoietin that is released into our bloodsteams naturally when our red blood cell count drops. Erythropoietin stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. A synthetic version of erythropoietin has been developed, and in clinical trials, there has been a marked decrease in fatigue and a marked increase in the quality of life.
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