Epoetin Alfa in Treating Patients With Anemia Who Are Undergoing Chemotherapy for Cancer

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed nonmyeloid cancer
• * No history of myelodysplasia
• Baseline hemoglobin 11-12 g/dL
• No anemia due to factors other than cancer or chemotherapy (e.g., iron, cyanocobalamin \[vitamin B\_12\], or folate deficiencies, hemolysis, or gastrointestinal bleeding)
• Receiving chemotherapy that meets the following criteria:
• * Administered weekly OR every 3 weeks
• * Must begin chemotherapy on or before the first day of study treatment
• No known, untreated CNS metastases
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Performance status
• ECOG 0-2
• Life expectancy
• At least 6 months
• Hematopoietic
• See Disease Characteristics
• Absolute neutrophil count ≥ 1,000/mm\^3
• Platelet count ≥ 100,000/mm\^3 (transfusion independent)
• Iron transferrin saturation \> 20%
• No history of chronic hypercoagulable disorders (e.g., activated protein C resistance, anti-cardiolipin disorder, protein C deficiency, or protein S deficiency)
• Hepatic
• Bilirubin \< 2.0 mg/dL
• SGPT ≤ 3 times upper limit of normal
• Renal
• Creatinine ≤ 1.5 mg/dL
• No significant, uncontrolled genitourinary disease or dysfunction
• Cardiovascular
• No uncontrolled cardiac arrhythmia in the past 6 months
• No uncontrolled hypertension
• No deep vein thrombosis, ischemic stroke, or other arterial or venous thrombotic events
• * Superficial thromboses allowed
• No other significant, uncontrolled cardiovascular disease or dysfunction
• Pulmonary
• No significant, uncontrolled pulmonary disease or dysfunction
• No pulmonary emboli
• Other
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• No infection requiring hospitalization or antibiotics in the past 14 days
• No known hypersensitivity to mammalian cell-derived products or to human albumin
• No new onset (in the past 3 months) poorly controlled seizures
• No other active malignancy except basal cell carcinoma or carcinoma in situ
• Not an employee of the investigator or study center or family members of the employee or the investigator
• No significant, uncontrolled neurological, endocrine, or gastrointestinal disease or dysfunction
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy
• See Chemotherapy
• More than 3 months since prior erythropoietic agent (e.g., epoetin alfa, darbepoetin alfa, or gene-activated erythropoietin)
• More than 4 weeks since prior packed red blood cell transfusion
• No concurrent stem cell harvest of bone marrow
• No concurrent interleukin-11
• No other concurrent erythropoietic agent
• Chemotherapy
• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation
• Radiotherapy
• No concurrent nonpalliative radiotherapy
• Surgery
• More than 2 weeks since prior major surgery
• Other
• At least 1 month since prior investigational agents or devices
• No concurrent high-dose IV iron supplementation