A panel of advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week recommended restricting the use of several blockbuster anaemia drugs in cancer patients.

The drugs, which promote the production of red blood cells, are Aranesp and Epogen, sold by Amgen, and Procrit, sold by Johnson & Johnson. These medicines are the subject of safety concerns after recent trials linked them to shortened cancer survival times and increased tumour growth.

The advisers voted overwhelmingly to keep the drugs on the market for treatment of anaemia induced by chemotherapy, but said that they should be used only with specific cancers. They voted by a majority of nine to five to bar the drugs' use in patients with head and neck, and breast cancers, for which studies had raised particular safety concerns.

The FDA is not bound to implement its advisers' recommendations, but it often does.