February 6, 2024
Jonathan Goodman, MPhil
A study published in the Annals of Hematology has highlighted the characteristics of patients with post-essential thrombocythemia or post-polycythemia vera myelofibrosis (PET-MF and PPV-MF, respectively) treated during the ruxolitinib era.
Although the characteristics of patients with primary MF are well-established, less research has evaluated real-world data from patients with PET-MF or PPV-MF. Given that primary and secondary forms of the disease may have different prognoses, a greater understanding of the clinical and patient characteristics in the latter group is important. For this prospective study, researchers in Japan aimed to determine the real-world characteristics and prognoses among patients with PET-MF or PPV-MF.
Overall, data from 314 patients were evaluated, among whom 197 had PET-MF while 117 had PPV-MF. At the time of diagnosis, in the PET-MF and PPV-MF groups, the median ages were 70 and 70 years, respectively, 49.7% and 53.8% of patients were male, and the periods from ET or PV diagnosis to MF progression were 9.64 and 10.38 years. The majority of patients in both groups received ruxolitinib treatment (74.6% in the PET-MF group and 83.8% in the PPV-MF group).