“…Erythropoietin (EPO) is a mainstay of bloodless SCT and is used to elevate patients' hemoglobin to give them the best possible chance at survival without RBC transfusion (Al-Nawakil et al, 2013;Ford, Grant, Mick, & Keck, 2015;Garelius, Grund, & Stockelberg, 2015;Jillella et al, 2017;Mazza, Palazzo, Minoia, Amurri, & Pisapia, 2016). Elemary et al (2017) established a specific trigger point to use erythropoiesis-stimulating agents during transplantation when the hemoglobin of Jehovah's Witness patients dropped below 11 g/dl. However, there are limitations to the efficacy of EPO because it takes two to six weeks of use to raise the patient's hemoglobin levels and the medication carries a black-box warning for increased risk of mortality or tumor progression in patients with cancer (Amgen, 2012).…”