María Perera, Montserrat Cortés, Erika Coria, Miguel Angel Fuertes-Palacio, Laura Solán, Isabel Caparrós, Inés Valcarce, Isidro Jarque, Carlos Aguilar, R. Jiménez, Pilar Galan, Silvia Bernat, Tomás José González-López, Pável E Olivera, Mónica Martín-Salces, Adriana Sainz, María Carmen Arratibel, María Paz Martínez-Badas, Maria Eva Mingot-Castellano, Manuel González-Silva, Fernando Fernández-Fuertes, Rafael Feito Alonso, Erik de Cabo, Juan Andrés Vázquez-Paganini, Angeles Fernández-Rodríguez, Susana Pérez-Crespo, Paola Beneit, Carmen Fernández-Miñano, Rosa Fisac, Carmen de Cos, Maria José Cortti, Violeta Martínez-Robles, Jose Angel Hernandez-Rivas, Alberto Casaus, Armando Luaña, Isabel Gutierrez-Jomarrón, Arancha Alonso, Cristina Fernández-Canal, María Teresa Álvarez-Román, María Jesús Peñarrubia, Javier García-Frade, Marcio M Andrade, José Ramón González-Porras, Marta Gómez-Nuñez, María Calbacho, Gloria Pérez-Rus, Cristina Pascual, and Blanca Sanchez-Gonzalez
Eltrombopag is effective and safe in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Some patients may sustain their platelet response when treatment is withdrawn but the frequency of this phenomenon is unknown. We retrospectively evaluated 260 adult primary ITP patients (165 women and 95 men; median age, 62 years) treated with eltrombopag after a median time from diagnosis of 24 months. Among the 201 patients who achieved a complete remission (platelet count >100 × 109/l), eltrombopag was discontinued in 80 patients. Reasons for eltrombopag discontinuation were: persistent response despite a reduction in dose over time (n = 33), platelet count >400 × 109/l (n = 29), patient's request (n = 5), elevated aspartate aminotransferase (n = 3), diarrhea (n = 3), thrombosis (n = 3), and other reasons (n = 4). Of the 49 evaluable patients, 26 patients showed sustained response after discontinuing eltrombopag without additional ITP therapy, with a median follow-up of 9 (range, 6–25) months. These patients were characterized by a median time since ITP diagnosis of 46.5 months, with 4/26 having ITP