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Encouraging Developments in Treatment Strategy for Patients With Myelofibrosis
Francesca Palandri, MD, PhD, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, Italy, discusses encouraging breakthroughs in treatment strategies for patients with myelofibrosis (MF), such as expanding treatment options for high-risk patients and more deeply considering the biology of the disease as it relates to response to treatment.
Oncology Learning Network: How would you describe the current treatment landscape of myelofibrosis?
I think that we are living [in] a very exciting time for myelofibrosis. Particularly, we are observing how combination strategies may increase the ability and the probability [of achieving] a spleen response at 6 months.
Are there any results on myelofibrosis treatment that you are particularly excited about?
I think that we are observing interesting results about the achiev[ement] of responses that go deeper into the biology of the disease, particularly affecting bone marrow fibrosis and possibly the variant lead frequency of driver mutations. It is very important to observe how the probability of maintaining the response may be increased with newer treatment strategies.
How will new advances in the myelofibrosis treatment landscape help mitigate potential patient risks?
I do believe that at this time we are opening some new treatments for the patients with cytopenic myelofibrosis. These patients are extremely frail and we recently showed that cytopenic MF does not respond well to rux[olitinib] immunotherapy. Therefore, expanding the therapeutic options for these patients may be very important for the optimization of their management.
Source:
Palandri F, Palumbo GA, Benevolo G, et al. Incidence of blast phase in myelofibrosis patients according to anemia severity at ruxolitinib start and during therapy. Cancer. Published online December 28, 2023. doi:10.1002/cncr.35156
