Dr. Palmer on Symptom Burden in Myelofibrosis With Thrombocytopenia

Jeanne M. Palmer, MD, vice chair, section chief, Hematology, program director, the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Mayo Clinic; instructor, the Mayo Clinic Medical School; instructor, the University of Arizona, discusses total symptom scores (TSS) in patients with myelofibrosis with thrombocytopenia.

A retrospective analysis of the phase 3 PERSIST-1 (NCT01773187) and PAC203 (NCT04884191) trials analyzed the symptom burdens of patients with myelofibrosis, including those with isolated thrombocytopenia or isolated anemia. This study used TSS v1.0 and v2.0 to analyze inflammatory symptoms including night sweats, weight loss, and fatigue, as well as spleen symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, left-sided rib pain, and early satiety, Palmer says.

Generally, patients with isolated thrombocytopenia had higher TSS, including higher fatigue scores than those with isolated anemia, Palmer notes. Although the reasons for these differences in the TSS data across myelofibrosis cohorts are unknown, it is possible that since patients with thrombocytopenia typically have more advanced disease, their symptom burdens may be associated with their increased disease progression, Palmer explains. Additionally, thrombocytopenia may intrinsically cause fatigue, which may also be true in other disease types, such as immune thrombocytopenia, in which patients often present with increased fatigue, Palmer concludes.

Funding supported by CTI Biopharma. Content independently developed by OncLive