Ruxolitinib in patients with polycythemia vera resistant and/or intolerant to hydroxyurea: European observational study

  • Alexandre Theocharides
  • , Heinz Gisslinger
  • , Valerio De Stefano
  • , Vincenzo Accurso
  • , Alessandra Iurlo
  • , Timothy Devos
  • , Miklos Egyed
  • , Eric Lippert
  • , Regina Garcia Delgado
  • , Nathan Cantoni
  • , Anders E.A. Dahm
  • , Damianos Sotiropoulos
  • , Erik Houtsma
  • , Aoife Smyth
  • , Amir Iqbal
  • , Paola Di Matteo
  • , Mike Zuurman
  • , Peter A.W. te Boekhorst*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
94 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background: 

Hydroxyurea (HU) is a commonly used first-line treatment in patients with polycythemia vera (PV). However, approximately 15%–24% of PV patients report intolerance and resistance to HU. 

Methods: 

This phase IV, European, real-world, observational study assessed the efficacy and safety of ruxolitinib in PV patients who were resistant and/or intolerant to HU, with a 24-month follow-up. The primary objective was to describe the profile and disease burden of PV patients. 

Results: 

In the 350 enrolled patients, 70% were >60 years old. Most patients (59.4%) had received ≥1 phlebotomy in the 12 months prior to the first dose of ruxolitinib. Overall, 68.2% of patients achieved hematocrit control with 92.3% patients having hematocrit <45% and 35.4% achieved hematologic remission at month 24. 85.1% of patients had no phlebotomies during the study. Treatment-related adverse events were reported in 54.3% of patients and the most common event was anemia (22.6%). Of the 10 reported deaths, two were suspected to be study drug-related. 

Conclusion: 

This study demonstrates that ruxolitinib treatment in PV maintains durable hematocrit control with a decrease in the number of phlebotomies in the majority of patients and was generally well tolerated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)379-391
Number of pages13
JournalEuropean Journal of Haematology
Volume112
Issue number3
Early online date30 Oct 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Haematology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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