Inclusion Criteria:

• Male or female 18 years of age or older
• Must have a confirmed diagnosis of gastric or rectal cancer for whom the treatment plan is preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery
• Must have a baseline hemoglobin >/= 10 g/dl and < 15 g/dl
• Must have adequate hematologic function
• Must have life expectancy of more than 6 months
• Karnofsky performance status of at least 50%
• Must have adequate renal function
• Patients with reproductive potential must use an adequate contraceptive method during treatment and three months after completing treatment
• Patients must be able to read, understand, and complete the three Quality of Life questionnaires in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior chemotherapy for patients with rectal cancer
• Gastric cancer patients who have received more than 2 cycles of chemotherapy
• Anemia due to factors other than cancer/chemotherapy
• Patients with prior treatment with epoetin alfa or any investigational forms of erythropoietin within the previous 6 months
• Known hypersensitivity to mammalian-cell derived products or to human albumin
• Pregnant or lactating women
• Untreated Central Nervous System metastases
• Any significant, uncontrolled disease/dysfunction of any of the major organs
• Uncontrolled hypertension or history of uncontrolled cardiac arrhythmias, pulmonary embolism, thrombosis
• New onset or poorly controlled seizures
• History of active second malignancy
• Major infection requiring hospitalization and antibiotics or surgery within 14 days of study entry
• Blood transfusion within 1 month of study entry
• Androgen therapy within 2 months of study entry