Choosing a Myelofibrosis Treatment Plan | Key Questions to Ask
Choosing a Myelofibrosis Treatment Plan | Key Questions to Ask from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
When considering therapy for myelofibrosis, where do you start? Dr. Lucia Masarova shares advice and key questions to ask your provider when making myelofibrosis treatment decisions.
Dr. Lucia Masarova is an MPN Specialist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Masarova.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
When considering treatment options, what key questions should patients ask about their proposed treatment plan?
Dr. Lucia Masarova:
What’s the goal of my therapy? That is one of the most important things to know. Patients don’t even know how long they have to be on the medicines. What to do and how does it look when the medicine is still working? What do I need to be looking for in this medicine? And then what are we going to do if it fails? And what does it actually mean when it fails? What is the schedule? How burdensome the treatment is? How often do I have to come?
How often and what do I have to pay? Because the financial burden we have to really, really face the truth. It is very, very, very significant and somebody living with this disease predicates. It’s something we cannot take lightly, and we really have to combine our efforts and help with that. There are fantastic patient support organizations, but is not well-known, and is still in the rare – in rarer field. So, there’s more effort that we do.
When do I need more help? Where to be referred to more experts? What is the role of stem cell transplantations, if ever? So, those are really the key things.
Where do I find reliable resources to learn about my treatment, to learn about the disease? How do I connect with people from the same community? It is a disease with a lower age in a lot of circumstances and really facing this disease in the 30s or 40s or 50s is a really challenging thing. Although we have more and more medications currently, we really do have now to start thinking about their durability, about the safety for long-term, about their assessments for not performing, and where do we place the ultimate cure for stem cell transplants?
And how do we make it actually happen in more and more eligible patients? Because we have to face the truth. It is still not utilized to where it belongs. Patients are not being referred.
Patients are not being transplanted. And they may change with novel therapies. But we have to really consider all of our tools to offer the longest life span and to prevent all the disease trouble that comes with living with MPNs.
Katherine Banwell:
When it comes to clinical trials, where do they fit in in choosing treatment?
Dr. Lucia Masarova:
For me, it’s number one., and always number one.
That’s just the academic centers which are dedicated and focused on developing better and novel and up front and just tailored and customized drugs. But I know that the life is out there and it’s a little bit more challenging for everybody to deal with such a rare disease.
I would definitely say any patient that does not respond to current therapy in terms of uncontrolled symptoms or spleen, or other concerns should be referred and evaluated for participation in clinical trials. It is the only way we could understand what is driving that this is not responding and how could we help the best?
For patients with myelofibrosis, which is the most aggressive myeloproliferative neoplasm, I would definitely put it in. If they are not doing well on number one, JAK inhibitor, whatever is being used, they should be highly encouraged to be referred to centers and evaluated for clinical trials.
We have been developing as others and own strategies to potentiate the benefit and efficacy of the current treatments, as well as agents in what we call salvage or refractory setting.
However, I cannot emphasize enough to really focus on the first track that providers choose for their patients and utilize it to the best ability to avoid frequent or quick switching. Because in a salvage or refractory setting we cannot offer the same benefit we could offer upfront. We are pushing the disease, maybe being less responsive, maybe more refractory, if we don’t handle the medication we have currently on the table to the best ability.
Those are excellent medications, fantastic drugs, but there are shortcomings in each and every one of them. And we could do better to really start thinking about what has happened with the medication, why is it failing the patient, and what else could we do? And that’s only possible in the clinical trial setting, especially in such a rare disease as myeloproliferative neoplasms are.
Katherine Banwell:
Why is it important for patients to feel like they have a voice in their treatment options?
Dr. Lucia Masarova:
Because it’s about the patients. I would say, as I always say to my patients, “Nobody’s a better advocate for you than you.” I really, really, really like working with patients. They are educated. They understand where to find resources. They’re not afraid to ask. That challenges all of my team and everybody to really be engaged. They know when to notify me. Not to be quiet when they need something. And really raise their voice when something doesn’t work.
Patients know their bodies more than anybody can. And no data, no boxes, no books can ever tell me how it actually is. It’s not by chance we have two ears to listen and one mouth to talk.
So, we have to really listen what the patient has to say and take all the abilities, the resources, the knowledge, the capabilities to really make the best thing for the patients, because it is ultimately and only about that.
