Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1. Panel A: The relationship between darbepoetin alfa dose and response in terms of the pro-
portion of patients in whom a 2 g/dL or greater increase in hemoglobin concentration was observed
that was not related to a red cell transfusion. All data were analyzed using an intent-to-treat approach
to missing data points and all hemoglobin values within four weeks of a red cell transfusion were
replaced with the imputed pretransfusion hemoglobin value. Adapted from [75]. Panel B: A schemat-
ic representation of the relationship between dose and response for erythropoietic agents in patients
with cancer receiving chemotherapy. Current dosing, including both current starting doses and the
doses that are used for dose increases in non-responding patients, appear to result in suboptimal hema-
tologic responses, at least over the relatively short time frames (20 weeks) for which these patients are
currently treated.
Another important and under-appreciated issue in erythropoietic therapy in
oncology concerns the role of iron supplementation [77]. During chronic
hemodialysis, iron loss during dialysis is significant and compromises the
