Mutations of calreticulin (CALR) are associated with lower risk for thrombotic events in patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET). These findings, from a multicenter retrospective study, were published in the European Journal of Haematology.
In patients with ET, higher levels of platelets, lower hemoglobin levels, and fewer thrombotic complications, with a two-fold reduced risk of thrombosis, are characteristics of a driver mutation in the CALR gene. In this study, researchers sought to determine the impact of CALR mutation type on thrombotic risk.
Medical records from 983 patients treated at 11 hospitals in Spain and 4 in Poland since 2000 were assessed for major thrombotic events 2 years prior to and a median 7.6 years after an ET diagnosis and for CALR and Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) V617F mutations.
Patients were aged median 54 years, 36.2% were men, 64.8% had JAK2V617F mutation, and 27.6% had CALR mutation (53.3% type 1; 36.4% type 2; 10.3% other).