Iron deficiency in gastrointestinal oncology

Abstract

Anemia is a very common condition in patients with gastrointestinal tumors, with a negative impact on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. The underlying causes are blood loss, chemotherapyinduced myelosuppression and iron deficiency. Yet, anemia and more specifically iron deficiency remains undertreated in daily clinical practice, mainly because many clinicians are not familiar with using intravenous iron products to treat iron deficiency. Many aspects of the pathophysiology of iron deficiency are now better understood. This review focuses on the mechanisms of iron deficiency in cancer patients and summarizes the approach to successfully treating it.

Keywords Anemia, iron deficiency, digestive oncology

Ann Gastroenterol 2015; 28 (1): 19-24