A Study of Darbepoetin Alfa in Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS)

Inclusion Criteria:- Diagnosis: * Bone marrow aspirate/biopsy-proven MDS for \> 2 months prior to enrollment. * MDS French-American-British (FAB) subtypes refractory anemia (RA), RA with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), RA with excess blasts (RAEB), and non-proliferative chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) \[WBC \< 12,000/ml\]. * Patients must have an untransfused hemoglobin \< 10.0 g/dL and/or patients must be red cell transfusion-dependent for a period of at least 2 months prior to study entry. \- Laboratory: * Bilirubin \< or = to 2 mg/dL * ALT/SGPT \< or = to 2.5 x the upper limit of normal (ULN) * Normal renal function (Stanford: serum creatinine \< 1.2 mg/dL \[male\], \< 1.0 mg/dL \[female\]; Vanderbilt: \< 1.5 mg/dL). * Age: \> or = to 18 * Other: * ECOG performance status 0-2. * Patients may receive standard supportive care, including transfusions and antibiotics as required. * Patients must be r-HuEPO naive or must not have received prior treatment with r-HuEPO \> or = to 40,000 U/week for more than 4 weeks. Exclusion Criteria:- Patients with secondary MDS or prior allogeneic bone marrow transplant.