Darbepoetin alpha in the treatment of cancer chemotherapy-induced anemia

Abstract

Anemia is a common, but underestimated and undertreated, complication of patients with cancer receiving chemo-or radiotherapy, and negatively affects their quality of life (QoL). Erythropoietic proteins (EPS) offer an effective treatment of cancer anemia and ameliorate QoL, although their use requires the correct targeting of hemoglobin increase to avoid thromboembolic complications. Currently the effort is focused on offering patients this effective treatment with reduced frequency of administration. Higher weekly single doses of recombinant human Epo (rHuEpo) either alpha or beta, instead of three times per week, have been proposed for the treatment. The pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of the hyperglycosylated protein darbepoetin alpha permit even longer intervals between administrations. Every other week or every three weeks schedules have shown results (erythropoietic response, reduction of transfusion requirements, and improvement of QoL) comparable with those of weekly rHuEpo.

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Anemia among Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy: A Prospective Study

“…According to a logistic regression analysis, patients who received docetaxel developed anemia at a higher rate than those who did not receive docetaxel ( Table 3 ). Correspondingly, similar findings indicated a significant relationship between docetaxel and anemia [ 35 ]. Despite the fact that anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapeutic regimens have become the standard of care for breast cancer treatment, they have been shown to reduce mortality and improve survival rates.…”

Anaemia in Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy at the National Hospital, Abuja

“…The above observation helped to strengthen our earlier report that Chemotherapy had greatest impact on Hb level during therapy. This assertion was supported by three different studies elsewhere Ludwig et al, Grossi et al and Jassen et al which showed that Chemotherapy is a well-known bone marrow depressant and acute cytotoxic agent [3,27,28], To reduce a lot of confounding factors which will likely influence the results of this study, patients that had World Health Organization (WHO), performance status of 0 and 1 were selected. Out of 201 patients studied, 54% (108) had WHO performance status of 0 while 46% (93) had WHO performance status of 1.…”

The Prevalence and Associated Factors of Anemia among Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy: A prospective study

“…According to a logistic regression analysis, patients who received docetaxel developed anemia at a higher rate than those who did not receive docetaxel (Table 3). Correspondingly, similar ndings indicated a signi cant relationship between doceatxel and anaemia (35). Despite the fact that anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapeutic regimens have become the standard of care for breast cancer treatment, they have been shown to reduce mortality and improve survival rates.…”