Photo Credit: Nemes Laszlo

About 60% of patients with low-risk myelofibrosis showed evidence of progression during more than 4 years of follow-up, according to findings published in Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia. Michael Grunwald, MD, and colleagues examined MF progression in 232 patients enrolled in the Myelofibrosis and Essential Thrombocythemia Observational Study. Disease progression was defined as hemoglobin less than 10 g/dL, platelets less than 100×109/L, constitutional symptoms (weight loss/fever/sweats), new/worsening splenomegaly, blasts greater than 1%, white blood cell count greater than 25×109/L, death from disease progression, leukemic transformation, or greater than one red blood cell transfusion. The study included two cohorts. In cohort A, 58.5% of 205 patients progressed; patients were often older at diagnosis and had longer time from diagnosis to enrollment. Most had hemoglobin less than 10 g/dL as a criterion. Cohort B showed high initial progression, with common criteria being low hemoglobin and platelets. The median durations to first and second progression indicate “a slow but increasing progression rate,” Dr. Grunwald and colleagues wrote.