Treatment of anemia in myelodysplastic syndrome with darbepoetin and granulocyte colony stimulating factor

Quality of life, physical function and MRI T2* in elderly low-risk MDS patients treated to a haemoglobin level of ≥120 g/L with darbepoetin alfa ± filgrastim or erythrocyte transfusions

“…Moreover, treatment was associated with improved survival and had no impact on leukaemic transformation rate (8). Darbepoetin alfa (DA) has a threefold increased plasma half-life compared with earlier EPO compounds and has shown encouraging response rates as a single agent (9)(10)(11)(12)(13) and combined with G-CSF (14)(15)(16). The reduced quality of life (QoL) associated with MDS (6,17) may be improved by an erythropoietic response to growth factors according to some (18)(19)(20) but not other (21) studies.…”