Another Blow to ESA Advocates

A study printed in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has taken a look at cancer patients using erythrocyte stimulating agents (ESA)... and it is not good news for Johnson & Johnson and Amgen.

The study examined patient with cancer, not CKD. They evaluated 56,210 patients who were diagnosed with lymphoma, breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, or colon cancer over a 10-year period who were treated with chemotherapy.  From 1991 through 2002, 15,346 (27%) of this patients received an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent. The proportion of patients receiving erythropoiesis-stimulating agents increased from 4.8% in 1991 to 45.9% in 2002 (P < .001). Despite the expected decrease in the need for red blood cell transfusions with the increased use of ESAs... the rate of transfusion for these patients between 1991 and 2002 remained constant at 22.%

Although this study was done in cancer patients, the widespread use of ESAs has been under a great deal of scrutiny. This is another example of how the promise of increased ESA use has not lived up to expectations.