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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has favored the expansion of telemedicine. Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (Ph-MPN) might be good candidates for virtual follow-up. In this study, we aimed to analyze the follow-up of patients with Ph-MPN in Spain during COVID-19, its effectiveness, and acceptance among patients. We present a multicenter retrospective study from 30 centers. Five hundred forty-one patients were included with a median age of 67 years (yr). With a median follow-up of 19 months, 4410 appointments were recorded. The median of visits per patient was 7 and median periodicity was 2.7 months; significantly more visits and a higher frequency of them were registered in myelofibrosis (MF) patients. 60.1% of visits were in-person, 39.5% were by telephone, and 0.3% were videocall visits, with a predominance of telephone visits for essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycythemia vera (PV) patients over MF, as well as for younger patients (< 50 yr). The proportion of phone visits significantly decreased after the first semester of the pandemic. Pharmacological modifications were performed only in 25.7% of the visits, and, considering overall management, ET patients needed fewer global treatment changes. Telephone contact effectiveness reached 90% and only 5.4% required a complementary in-person appointment. Although 56.2% of the cohort preferred in-person visits, 90.5% of our patients claimed to be satisfied with follow-up during the pandemic, with an 83% of positive comments. In view of our results, telemedicine has proven effective and efficient, and might continue to play a complementary role in Ph-MPN patients' follow-up., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Available data have proved insufficient to develop consensus recommendations on the prevention of thrombosis and bleeding in myelofibrosis (MF). We evaluated the incidence and risk factors of vascular complications in 1613 patients from the Spanish Myelofibrosis Registry. Over a total of 6981 patient-years at risk, 6.4% of the study population had at least one thrombotic event after MF diagnosis, amounting to an incidence rate of 1.65 per 100 patient-years. Prior history of thrombosis, the JAK2 mutation, and the intermediate-2/high-risk International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) categories conferred an increased thrombotic risk after adjustment for the risk-modifying effect of anti-thrombotic and cytoreductive treatments. History of thrombosis and the JAK2 mutation allowed us to pinpoint a group of patients at higher risk of early thrombosis. No decreased incidence of thrombosis was observed while patients were on anti-thrombotic or cytoreductive treatment. An increased risk of venous thrombosis was found during treatment with immunomodulatory agents. A total of 5.3% of patients had at least one episode of major bleeding, resulting in an incidence rate of 1.5 events per 100 patient-years. Patients in the intermediate-2/high-risk IPSS categories treated with anti-coagulants had an almost sevenfold increased risk of major bleeding. These findings should prove useful for guiding decision-making in clinical practice., (© 2022 British Society for Haematology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Hematological control, incidence of complications, and need for cytoreduction were studied in 453 patients with low-risk polycythemia vera (PV) treated with phlebotomies alone. Median hematocrit value decreased from 54% at diagnosis to 45% at 12 months, and adequate hematocrit control over time (< 45%) was observed in 36%, 44%, and 32% of the patients at 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. More than 5 phlebotomies per year in the maintenance phase were required in 19% of patients. Worsening thrombocytosis, age > 60 years, and microvascular symptoms constituted the main indications for starting cytoreduction. Median duration without initiating cytoreduction was significantly longer in patients younger than 50 years (< 0.0001). The incidence rate of thrombosis under phlebotomies alone was 0.8% per year and the estimated probability of thrombosis at 10 years was 8.5%. The probability of arterial thrombosis was significantly higher in patients with arterial hypertension whereas there was a trend to higher risk of venous thrombosis in cases with high JAK2V617F allele burden. Rates of major bleeding and second primary neoplasm were low. With a median follow-up of 9 years, survival probability at 10 years was 97%, whereas the probability of myelofibrosis at 10 and 20 years was 7% and 20%, respectively. Progression to acute myeloid leukemia was documented in 3 cases (1%). Current management of low-risk PV patients is associated with low rate of thrombosis and long survival. New treatment strategies are needed for improving hematological control and, in the long term, reducing progression to myelofibrosis., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Ruxolitinib is approved for patients with polycythemia vera (PV) who are resistant/intolerant to hydroxyurea, but its impact on preventing thrombosis or disease-progression is unknown., Methods: A retrospective, real-world analysis was performed on the outcomes of 377 patients with resistance/intolerance to hydroxyurea from the Spanish Registry of Polycythemia Vera according to subsequent treatment with ruxolitinib (n = 105) or the best available therapy (BAT; n = 272). Survival probabilities and rates of thrombosis, hemorrhage, acute myeloid leukemia, myelofibrosis, and second primary cancers were calculated according to treatment. To minimize biases in treatment allocation, all results were adjusted by a propensity score for receiving ruxolitinib or BAT., Results: Patients receiving ruxolitinib had a significantly lower rate of arterial thrombosis than those on BAT (0.4% vs 2.3% per year; P = .03), and this persisted as a trend after adjustment for the propensity to have received the drug (incidence rate ratio, 0.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.02-1.3; P = .09). There were no significant differences in the rates of venous thrombosis (0.8% and 1.1% for ruxolitinib and BAT, respectively; P = .7) and major bleeding (0.8% and 0.9%, respectively; P = .9). Ruxolitinib exposure was not associated with a higher rate of second primary cancers, including all types of neoplasia, noncutaneous cancers, and nonmelanoma skin cancers. After a median follow-up of 3.5 years, there were no differences in survival or progression to acute leukemia or myelofibrosis between the 2 groups., Conclusions: The results suggest that ruxolitinib treatment for PV patients with resistance/intolerance to hydroxyurea may reduce the incidence of arterial thrombosis., Lay Summary: Ruxolitinib is better than other available therapies in achieving hematocrit control and symptom relief in patients with polycythemia vera who are resistant/intolerant to hydroxyurea, but we still do not know whether ruxolitinib provides an additional benefit in preventing thrombosis or disease progression. We retrospectively studied the outcomes of 377 patients with resistance/intolerance to hydroxyurea from the Spanish Registry of Polycythemia Vera according to whether they subsequently received ruxolitinib (n = 105) or the best available therapy (n = 272). Our findings suggest that ruxolitinib could reduce the incidence of arterial thrombosis, but a disease-modifying effect could not be demonstrated for ruxolitinib in this patient population., (© 2022 The Authors. Cancer published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Cancer Society.)

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) is increasingly used in older myelofibrosis (MF) patients, but its risk/benefit ratio compared to non-transplant approaches has not been evaluated in this population. We analyzed the outcomes of allo-HCT in 556 MF patients aged ≥65 years from the EBMT registry, and determined the excess mortality over the matched general population of MF patients ≥65 years managed with allo-HCT (n = 556) or conventional drug treatment (n = 176). The non-transplant cohort included patients with intermediate-2 or high risk DIPSS from the Spanish Myelofibrosis Registry. After a median follow-up of 3.4 years, the estimated 5-year survival rate, non-relapse mortality (NRM), and relapse incidence after transplantation was 40%, 37%, and 25%, respectively. Busulfan-based conditioning was associated with decreased mortality (HR: 0.7, 95% CI: 0.5-0.9) whereas the recipient CMV+/donor CMV- combination (HR: 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2-2.4) and the JAK2 mutated genotype (HR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.1-3.5) predicted higher mortality. Busulfan-based conditioning correlated with improved survival due to less NRM, despite its higher relapse rate when compared with melphalan-based regimens. Excess mortality was higher in transplanted patients than in the non-HCT cohort in the first year of follow-up (ratio: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.13-2.80), whereas the opposite occurred between the fourth and eighth follow-up years (ratio: 0.31, 95% CI: 0.18-0.53). Comparing the excess mortality of the two treatments, male patients seemed to benefit more than females from allo-HCT, mainly due to their worse prognosis with non-transplant approaches. These findings could potentially enhance counseling and treatment decision-making in elderly transplant-eligible MF patients., (© 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Hematology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE MYELOFIBROSIS: is an infrequent chronic myeloproliferative neoplasm. We aimed to describe the clinico-biological characteristics, treatment, and evolutive course of myelofibrosis patients in Spain., Material and Methods: A total of 1,000 patients from the Spanish Registry of Myelofibrosis diagnosed with primary (n=641) or secondary (n=359) myelofibrosis were analysed., Results: Median age was 68 years. The frequency of constitutional symptoms, moderate to severe anaemia (Hb<10g/dL), and symptomatic splenomegaly was 35%, 36%, and 17%, respectively. The rate of thrombosis and haemorrhage was 1.96 and 1.6 events per 100 patient-years, respectively. The cumulative incidence of leukaemia at 10 years was 15%. The most frequent therapies for the anaemia were the erythropoiesis stimulating agents and danazol. From 2010, a progressive increase in the use of ruxolitinib was noticed. A total of 7.5% of patients were transplanted. During the observation period, 42% of patients died mainly due to the clinical deterioration caused by myelofibrosis or leukaemic transformation. The median survival of the series was 5.7 years. Four different risk categories were identified by the IPSS: median survival was not reached in the low risk group and was 8.8 years, 5.3 years, and 2.8 years in the intermediate-1, intermediate-2, and high-risk groups, respectively., Conclusions: Myelofibrosis is a disabling condition mainly affecting elderly people. Its treatment is mostly driven by symptom control. Despite its clinical heterogeneity, several prognostic models are useful to select candidates for transplantation., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Prognostic models are widely used in clinical practice for transplant decision-making in myelofibrosis (MF). We have compared the performance of the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS), dynamic IPSS (DIPSS), and DIPSS-plus in a series of 544 patients with primary or secondary MF aged ≤ 70 years at the time of diagnosis. The median projected survival of the overall series was 9.46 years (95% confidence interval 7.44-10.59). Median survival for the highest risk groups was less than 4 years in the three prognostic models. By contrast, the projected survival for patients in the intermediate-2 categories by the IPSS, DIPSS, and DIPSS-plus was 6.6, 5.6, and 6.5 years, respectively. The number of patients in the intermediate-2 and high-risk categories was smaller in the DIPSS than in the IPSS or the DIPSS-plus. The IPSS and DIPSS-plus were the best models to discriminate between the intermediate-1 and intermediate-2 risk categories, which is a critical cut-off point for patient selection to transplant. Among patients assigned at diagnosis to the intermediate-2 or high-risk groups by the IPSS, DIPSS, and DIPSS-plus, only 17, 21, and 20%, respectively, were subsequently transplanted. In conclusion, in our contemporary series of younger MF patients only the highest risk categories of the current prognostication systems have a median survival below the 5-year threshold recommended for considering transplantation. Patient selection for transplantation can significantly differ depending on which prognostication model is used for disease risk stratification.

Objective: Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are commonly used to treat the anemia of myelofibrosis (MF), but information on the predictors of response is limited., Methods: Results of ESA therapy were analyzed in 163 MF patients with severe anemia, most of whom had inadequate erythropoietin (EPO) levels (<125 U/L) at treatment start., Results: According to the revised criteria of the International Working Group for Myelofibrosis Treatment and Research, anemia response was achieved in 86 patients (53%). Median response duration was 19.3 months. In multivariate analysis, baseline factors associated with a higher response rate were female sex (P=.007), leukocyte count ≥10×10 9 /L (P=.033), and serum ferritin <200 ng/mL (P=.002). Patients with 2 or 3 of the above features had a significantly higher response rate than the remainder (73% vs 28%, respectively; P<.001). Over the 373 patient-years of follow-up on ESA treatment, nine patients developed thrombotic complications (six arterial, three venous), accounting for 2.41 events per 100 patient-years. Survival time from ESA start was longer in anemia responders than in non-responders (P=.011)., Conclusion: Besides the already established predictive value of EPO levels, these data can help to identify which MF patients are more likely to benefit from ESA treatment., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aims: The diagnosis of primary myelofibrosis (PMF) strongly relies on the bone marrow biopsy findings, but a report model has not been standardised. Our aim was to establish general recommendations for bone marrow evaluation and standardised reporting in a case suspicious of PMF., Methods: The Delphi method was employed to obtain expert consensus. An advisory panel of 10 leading members identifies a total of 37 haematopathology experts to participate. The first Delphi round included a questionnaire with three main groups of items: minimal clinical and laboratory data considered necessary before reporting, minimal descriptive aspects to record and main histological differential diagnosis. The final report content was based on consensus obtained after the second Delphi round., Results: The minimal data considered necessary were age, splenomegaly, haemoglobin, leucocyte and platelet counts, differential blood cell count, leucoerythroblastic blood picture, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, BCR-ABL and JAK2 mutational status, reticulin stain and the internal control for the reticulin staining. The minimal descriptive aspects to report were cellularity, osteosclerosis, megakaryocytic morphology and localisation, dense megakaryocytic clusters, quantity of granulocytic precursors, grade of myelofibrosis in a scale of 4, and a proposed final diagnostic approach. The entities to be considered for differential diagnosis were mainly the other classical chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms., Conclusions: The Delphi method is a robust tool to determine essential information to be included in a pathology report. A standardised good-quality histopathological report form may help to homogenise PMF diagnosis. A close collaboration between the pathologist and the haematologist is desirable according to our survey., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.)