A review article has just been published in ‘Leukemia’ titled: A paradigm shift in the treatment of patients with polycythemia vera. The initial early use of recombinant interferon-alpha. It is free to access in full.
The review article has been written by two haematologists who have been using interferon therapy in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms for decades, Dr Richard Silver from the US and Dr Hans Hasselbalch from Denmark.
This review article provides a detailed history of the use of interferon in PV, its impacts on the disease, reference links to clinical trial outcomes, as well as treatment considerations. It highlights the authors’ concerns that “even low-risk PV patients are at increased thrombotic risk, estimated at 2 to 3 times that of the general population. Moreover, as PV progresses, the development of myelofibrosis is the leading cause of morbidity, perhaps abetted by PHLEB-O (phlebotomy only)”.
The authors explain…”Here, we review recent progress in the treatment of PV with rIFNa (interferon alpha) and discuss our rationales and perspectives for, and the endorsement of the initial treatment with rIFNa of both low and high-risk PV patients, unless a contraindication exists to its use.”
