BACKGROUND Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are commonly used for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD). Patients often lack an understanding of the potential risks and benefits of ESAs, despite government mandated education on this topic. Decision aids are tools commonly used to discuss important information in health care settin...

Dr. Bennett and colleagues have provided a thorough and balanced history of the rise and fall of erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs) in cancer-associated anemia. Their review encourages us to think about the lessons learned from this history—lessons about medical progress, the importance of clinical research in guiding clinical practice, and the role of the US Food and Drug Administration ...

BACKGROUND In addition to tumour treatment, the management of symptoms such as pain is an important component of cancer care. Pain management is a complex field and prior studies have highlighted many different clinical care responses to a cancer patient presenting with severe pain. We explored follow-up and how pain screening scores changed over time, among a cohort of cancer outpatients, and ...

CONTEXT The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), created by the Edmonton Group in 1991, is an instrument assessing symptom control that is commonly used in palliative care. It asks patients to rate nine items on 11-point numeric rating scales. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to translate the ESAS to Thai and validate its final version with transcultural adaptation for Thai palliativ...

The availability of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) has revolutionized the treatment of anaemia in patients with chronic kidney disease. However, maintaining patients at haemoglobin (Hb) levels that are both safe and provide maximal benefit is a continuing challenge in the field. Based on emerging data on the potential risks of Hb treatment targets >13 g/dL, treatment targets have rece...

PURPOSE Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are recommended for treating chemotherapy-induced anemia in breast cancer patients. Reduced survival rates in ESAs-treated patients have been reported, possibly due to thromboembolic complications, however the exact mechanism remains obscure. The principal activator of blood coagulation in cancer is tissue factor (TF). There are data that erythro...

Erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) have been reported to activate erythropoietin receptors (EpoR) on cell types, including endothelial, neuronal, renal tubule, and cardiac cells. ESAs have also been reported to promote angiogenesis. However, those findings are controversial and confounded by methodologic issues. We show that EpoR mRNA was detected in essentially all cell types examined, i...