{"id":1331,"date":"2009-11-06T16:48:13","date_gmt":"2009-11-06T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/darbepoetin-trick-or-treat-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2011-07-19T17:45:16","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T21:45:16","slug":"darbepoetin-trick-or-treat-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2009\/11\/06\/darbepoetin-trick-or-treat-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Darbepoetin&#8211;Trick or Treat? Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/cardioexchange.org\/blogPost?postId=143\">SEE PART 1 OF SERIES<\/a>) I was amazed by three things when the results from Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events with Aranesp Therapy (TREAT) were presented Friday October 30th, 2009 at the American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting in San Diego:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Thousands of atttendees came to hear TREAT presented by Dr M. Pfeffer&#8211;The room was tense with anticipation!<\/li>\n<li> This is the first time since I joined the NEJM\u2019s editorial board in 2002 that I remember a presentation at ASN being concurrently published in the journal.<\/li>\n<li> With some 4000 patients from more than 600 sites across 24 countries, the size of this trial makes me numb. You cardiologists may consider this an average sized study&#8211;Poor nephrologists!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Relative to other randomized clinical trials in nephrology, TREAT is unique in that it is refreshingly simple, large and effective. TREAT was designed to determine in patients with CKD, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and moderate anemia whether the treatment of anemia with darbepoetin alfa would reduce the risk of death, major cardiovascular events and renal events. Within weeks the hemoglobin levels for the groups separated. The median achieved hemoglobin concentrations were 12.5 and 10.6 for darbepoetin alfa and placebo, respectively. The authors found no differences in the overall rate of the primary cardiovascular or renal composite endpoints. Of patients assigned to darbepoetin, 101 patients experienced a stroke compared to 53 patients assigned to placebo (hazard ratio 1.92).<\/p>\n<p>The neutral effect on either the primary composite of cardiovascular endpoints and renal endpoints, together with the observed increased rates of stroke, was not predicted. The clinical importance of an increased rate of stroke, clearly a serious adverse event, must be considered in the context of the population studied. Even though the trial excluded patients with a history of a cardiovascular event in the preceding three months, the risk of death or a major cardiovascular event was 31% in the entire cohort over the course of the trial. Such data serves to remind us about the incredible burden of cardiovascular disease in patients with CKD. The authors conclude that the use of darbepoetin alfa in patients with non-dialysis diabetic CKD with moderate anemia did not reduce either the primary composite cardiovascular or renal outcome and was associated with an increased risk of stroke. They also reported change in FACIT fatigue from baseline to week 25, noting the difference between the darbepoetin alfa group and the placebo group was a humble improvement at best. Let us be clear that this trial did not address patients on dialysis. TREAT did not study patients with severe anemia! The study did not confirm CHOIR.<\/p>\n<p>Treating physicians and patients will recognize the need to balance trade-offs\u2014namely the risk of increased risk of stroke, higher rates of venous thromboembolic events, and possibly deaths from cancer versus the perception of improved quality of life. \u00a0I am sensitive to the challenge of quality of life versus the quantity of life. Remembering that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.quotationspage.com\/quote\/29638.html\">\u201cthe supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive\u201d<\/a>, I am also mindful that I will be a patient at some future date. Most of us can empathize with patients on this truly personal measure of one\u2019s own life. Physicians and patients will need to come to terms with this issue.<\/p>\n<p>With all of this in mind, what would we say to a patient who prioritizes quality of life over morbidity risk? How will this influence your treatment choices?\u00a0 What will you recommend to your next patient with CKD, diabetes and moderate anemia?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(SEE PART 1 OF SERIES) I was amazed by three things when the results from Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events with Aranesp Therapy (TREAT) were presented Friday October 30th, 2009 at the American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting in San Diego: Thousands of atttendees came to hear TREAT presented by Dr M. Pfeffer&#8211;The room was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-prevention","category-vascular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}