Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusions
Over the last five years, it has become clear that anemia is a major problem in
oncology because it compromises quality of life and possibly survival of
patients with cancer. It is highly treatable. As the perceived importance of
addressing the anemia problem has increased, the need for approaches to man-
agement, in terms of drug, dose, schedule, and co-therapy with iron, that insure
that all patients will benefit as rapidly as possible has become more acute. At
the same time, the question of the cost impact of erythropoietic therapy has
become one of the most pressing health services issues in cancer medicine.
New approaches, tailored to the needs of patients and consistent with the grow-
ing understanding of the biology of this anemia and its treatment, including
higher initial doses of erythropoietic agents and more rapid responses are like-
ly to emerge and to have advantages over current approaches that are associat-
ed with unacceptably high non-response rates and times to response. Rigorous
clinical trials and health services research will be required if these optimized
approaches are to be delivered in a uniformly accepted, affordable, and cost-
effective manner.
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