0000000000749912
AUTHOR
Juergen Thiele
Bone marrow fibrosis and diagnosis of essential thrombocythemia
However, there are serious issues to beraisedconcerningtheauthors’analysisoftheclinicaldata,thecriteriausedtodiagnoseET,andthequantificationoffibrosis.Altogethertheauthors compared a heterogenous patient database, which included311 patients evaluated for presenting features, 299 for response totherapy,361forcomplicationrates,97forprogressionoffibrosis,andfour for reversal of BM fibrosis, so no single cohort with consistentfeatures was described throughout the study of 361 patients. Forexample, for the analysis of progression of fibrosis, only 97 (12%) oftheoriginal809patientsenteredintheUK-PT1trial
Bone marrow evaluation according to the PVSG and WHO criteria in 90 essential thrombocythemia (ET) patients treated with PEG interferon alpha-2b. Preliminary results
Abstract Ninety ET patients diagnosed according to the PVSG criteria were enrolled in a phase II study (sponsored by the Schering-Plough Company) designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of a two years treatment with PEG Interferon alpha-2 b (PEG Intron). The patients, observed in 16 Italian Centres belonging to the GIMEMA Cooperative Group and judged at high risk, had been previously treated with cytoreductive (97%) and antiplatelet (91%) drugs. At the study start the patients, 60 F and 30 M, mean age 45 years, showed splenomegaly in 22% of cases. The Hematological Response (HR: PLT<500 x109/L) was observed in 64/81 (79%) and 48/55 (87%) of the patients on PEG Intr…