EPO and anemia: Since the approval of recombinant human EPO by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1989, epoetin alfa and similar agents now collectively known as erythropoiesis‐stimulating agents (ESA) have become the standard of care for the treatment of anemia that occurs in patients with CKDs [6, 7, 8]. Of note, some observations indicated that ESA treatment demonstrates not only a preventive effect on cardiovascular risks, but also a certain level of protective effect against renal damage [9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14].