Myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of blood disorders, have debilitating effects on patients, including shortening life expectancy and lowering the quality of life. From the 2018 Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) in Houston, TX, Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, brings light upon a subgroup of patients that undergo an accelerated phase whereby they transition from chronic to acute myeloid leukemia. Prof. Verstovsek stresses a vital need to intervene in this transition phase, suggesting prognostic factors such as a low percentage of blasts and platelets that can be observed. Treatments are also discussed in this interview, including the use of hypomethylating agents to reduce the number of blasts to bring patients back to the chronic phase, in with transplantation can be used. Hypomethylation agents, however, cannot treat all symptoms such as weight loss and splenomegaly. Improvements in such physical symptoms may be best treated by combination therapy with ruxolitinib and a hypomethylating agent.

Ruben Mesa, MD of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ talks about the data he presented at the 58th Annual ASH Meeting & Exposition showing that half of teh patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), including myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and essential thrombocythemia end up having a change in their employment status following their diagnosis (eg, leaving job, medical disability leave, early retirement) that they attributed to their disease.

Reference
Yu J, Parasuraman S, Paranagama D, et al. Impact of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms on Patients’ Employment Status and Work Productivity in the United States: Results from the Living with MPN Patient Survey. Presented at the 58th Annual ASH Meeting & Exposition; San Diego, CA; December 3-6, 2016. Abstract 4256.

Antje joined the MPN-NET listserv in 1999 and started an MPN-NET chapter in Carlsbad, California in 2003, eventually becoming list owners with two friends. In 2009, Antje became the director of the Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN) Education Foundation, which serves about 3,000 members worldwide and is available to patients and caregivers 365 days a year.

This video for medical students focuses on the pathophysiology and morphologic features of the myeloid neoplasms: acute myeloid leukemias, myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative disorders (e.g., polycythemia vera)

This is an exciting time for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), with new treatments on the horizon. Here, Claire Harrison, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, from Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, gives an overview of the session she chaired on individualizing care for patients with CML and MPNs at the 2018 British Society for Hematology (BSH) Annual Scientific Meeting in Liverpool, UK. Prof. Harrison touches upon the program, which was designed with an overlap for the two conditions in mind, addressing several of the session speakers, including Adam Mead, who spoke on stem cell dynamics and treatment-free remission in CML, Anna Godfrey, who covered essential thrombocythemia, and John Mascarenhas, who discussed future directions for myelofibrosis.