Allies in the fight against cancer People with cancer who don't receive their recommended doses and schedules of chemotherapy run the risk of their disease worsening. That's why studies published in 2004 were so startling: They found that many people with early-stage breast cancer or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma didn't get all the chemotherapy they should, due to concerns over side effects.

One of the most serious side effects of chemotherapy is neutropenia, a drop in the white blood cell count to below-normal levels that can place patients at risk of life-threatening infections. Two Amgen discoveries, NEUPOGEN® and Neulasta®, help to protect patients with certain types of cancer from infection associated with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. They work by stimulating the bone marrow to make more neutrophils, white blood cells that fight infection. NEUPOGEN® requires 10 or 11 injections per chemotherapy cycle; Neulasta® calls for only one injection per cycle.

Neulasta® and NEUPOGEN® can both help restore patients' white blood cell counts and reduce the risk of getting an infection. When patients have sufficient white blood cell counts, their doctors may have a better chance of giving chemotherapy on schedule.

Together with Aranesp®, Neulasta® and NEUPOGEN® have made Amgen the world's leading provider of oncology supportive care (therapies to help cancer patients combat the side effects of their treatment). But the company wants to do much more to help people fight cancer by providing new therapies to attack the disease itself. "We're committed to helping cancer patients by advancing our oncology therapeutics pipeline," says Jim Daly, vice president and general manager of Amgen's U.S. Oncology business.