Impact of Weight on Symptom Burden Outcomes in Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Patients Participating in an Online Yoga Intervention

Introduction: Polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), and myelofibrosis (MF) are chronic, Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) that are characterized by deregulated myeloid lineage cell production, leading to a high symptom burden, including abdominal pain/discomfort from splenomegaly, fatigue, depressive symptoms, sleep disturbance, sexual problems, and pruritis, among other symptoms. Yoga interventions have been demonstrated to be efficacious for improving symptom burden in other cancer populations. Additionally weight has been shown to moderate symptom burden response in cancer patients. In MPN patients, it is unknown if weight influences symptom burden response. Therefore, the purpose of this analysis was to examine the differences at baseline and post-intervention in symptom burden between overweight and normal weight MPN patients participating in an online yoga intervention.