Adjuvant I.V. Iron Therapy During Erythropoetin Treatment of Anemic Patients With Lymphoproliferative Disorders.

In this multi-center, randomized, open label phase-3 study, the correction of mild or moderate anemia and the effect on iron kinetics by rHuEPO treatment, with or without intravenous iron treatment, in patients with LPD not receiving antineoplastic therapy will be studied. LENGTH OF STUDY 16 weeks NUMBER OF CENTERS 15 NUMBER OF SUBJECTS 66 STRATIFICATION 1. According to diagnosis; CLL and indolent NHL vs. MM. 2. According to level of S-epo \> 100 IU/L vs £ 100 IU/L at baseline. TREATMENT The patients will be randomized to receive 30 000 IU Neorecormon â (epoetin beta) s.c. once / week for 16 consecutive weeks +/- 100mg/week of Venofer â (iron sucrose) from week 0 to 6, followed by one 100mg dose every 2 week from weeks 8 until 14. If the increase in Hb concentration is less than 10g/L from baseline (week 0) until week 4 weeks, the dose of epoetin beta will be increased to 60 000 IU weekly from week 5. If the Hb concentration exceeds 140 g/L, the epoetin beta therapy will be suspended. The treatment will be resumed once the Hb concentration falls below 130 g/L. This resumed dose will be 75% of the previous dose (e.g. if the previous dose was 30 000 IU before suspension, the continued dose should be 22 500 IU. If the dose was 60 000 IU before suspension, the dose should be 45 000 IU). If the level of S-ferritin reaches \>1000 ug/L iron sucrose should be suspended until the S-ferritin level falls below 500 ug/L.