ROCKVILLE, Maryland—There are no clinically significant differences in the safety and efficacy of epoetin alfa(Drug information on epoetin alfa) (Epogen, Procrit) and darbepoetin alfa(Drug information on darbepoetin alfa) (Aranesp), the two drugs most commonly used to treat anemia in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatments, according to a new report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The two drugs both reduce the need for blood transfusions, but the report found no evidence that either drug improved survival when added to a cancer treatment; it warned that significant questions remain about the safety and best uses of both agents.
A primary goal of the study was to determine whether darbepoetin, a newer drug that requires fewer injections, is better than epoetin at achieving specific treatment goals. The report concluded that for some goals, such as reducing the need for transfusion, the drugs did not differ. For other goals, it remains uncertain whether the two drugs had a meaningful effect.
The review was conducted as part of AHRQ's Effective Health Care Program, which is designed to compare alternative treatments for significant health conditions and make the findings public as an aid in choosing the most effective treatments. The report's key findings included:
•Epoetin and darbepoetin proved equally effective at increasing hemoglobin concentration.
•The two drugs showed no significant difference in reducing the need for transfusions. Pooled clinical trial results showed that about 30% of patients treated with either drug had transfusions, compared with 50% of the untreated patients.
•Studies that directly compared the two drugs found no significant difference in the rates of thromboembolic events. Rates from individual trials varied widely, but pooled results showed approximately 7% of patients treated with either drug had a clotting event, compared with 4% of the untreated patients.
•Measurements of quality of life tended to favor either drug but the selection of measures and reporting of results were inconsistent.
