Tag Archive for: JAK mutation

How Do Test Results Inform MPN Prognosis & Treatment?

How Do Test Results Inform MPN Prognosis & Treatment? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Brady Stein explains the diagnostic tests and genetic mutations that are assessed to determine prognosis and what MPN treatment may work best.

Dr. Brady Stein is a hematologist focusing on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. 


Related Resources

Which MPN Treatment is Right for You? Factors to Consider

Resource Guide: Choosing an MPN Treatment: What Option is Best for You?

MPN Treatment: Why Testing for Mutations Matters


Transcript:

Katherine:                  

Once a patient is diagnosed with MPN, what sort of testing should take place?

Dr. Stein:                   

So, the test that’s going to lead to suspicion is going to be a blood count, and that’s probably going to be done in the primary care doctor’s office, so that’s going to be the first suspicious test, and in general, there’s going to be some abnormality. Myeloproliferative diseases are characterized in general by an overproduction of blood cells, so it’s going to be a higher white count, it’s going to be a high hemoglobin or hematocrit, or a high platelet count, or a combination of the three that’s generally going to lead to suspicion.

Some patients may have pretty unremarkable blood counts and may present with a blood clot in an unusual location that could ultimately lead to the hematology referral. Some patients might have pretty unremarkable blood counts, but they might have palpation of their spleen, enlargement of their spleen in a physical examination. So, they’re generally the ways that patients are getting to the hematologist.

Katherine:                  

And, what about bone marrow biopsy?

Dr. Stein:                   

So, a bone marrow biopsy is a diagnostic test, and it’s generally recommended for all patients who have a myeloproliferative neoplasm either confirmed or suspected.

It’s advised in WHO criteria – World Health Organization criteria. PV can be made without a bone marrow biopsy – a diagnosis of PV – because it’s the most unique of the MPN subtypes. It’s the one that presents with a high hemoglobin.

So, that diagnosis can be straightforward at times for a hematologist when the setting is right, when there’s a high hemoglobin – or, high enough hemoglobin, I should say, a JAK2 mutation, which all patients with PV have that, or a subnormal erythropoietin level.

Oftentimes, we can make that diagnosis without a bone marrow, and the bone marrow becomes more prognostic. ET, a bone marrow is necessary for diagnosis, and myelofibrosis, you can’t make a diagnosis without it.

Katherine:                  

What do the results of these tests tell us about prognosis and treatment choices?

Dr. Stein:                   

That’s a good question. The bone marrow can be diagnostic in the setting of ET and myelofibrosis. In the setting of polycythemia vera, it can be more prognostic. In general, when a bone marrow is done, 1). To confirm diagnosis, 2). To assess prognosis, what we’re looking for as prognostic features are generally the degree of fibrosis or scarring.

So, each of the MPNs can have that. Of course, MF is characterized by the most pronounced scarring. It can happen to a more subtle degree in ET and PV. That’s going to be prognostic in the setting of ET or PV. The pathologist will alert us about immature cells called blasts.

We basically never see them at diagnosis in patients with ET or PV. We can see them rise in patients with myelofibrosis at diagnosis or through the course of follow-up. So, that’s prognostic.

All bone marrows generally have a chromosome analysis that’s called cytogenetics, and so, if there’s an abnormality, that can help place the patient’s prognosis into different risk categories.

And then, nowadays, more so in myelofibrosis than any of the others, there are extended panels done. These are called NGS, or next-generation sequencing, kind of looking at mutations in a greater degree of detail.

So, not just what we call main mutations – JAK2, calreticulin, or MPL. These are looking at additional mutations that basically hold prognostic significance.

These are pretty well defined, and I think more important in MF compared to the other subtypes.

Katherine:                  

Would you explain the driver mutations in MPNs? What are they, and how they – or, what they mean for patients?

Dr. Stein:                   

So, there’s three of what we call driver mutations, and the most common is JAK2V617F, the next most common is calreticulin, and the least common or most rare is a mutation of MPL, the thrombopoietin receptor. So, the driver gene mutations are the three that we assess to help with diagnosis, and the prevalence varies. In ET, about 60 percent have JAK2, 25 percent have calreticulin, 5 to 10 percent have MPL.

In PV, 99 percent have some type of JAK2 mutation, and in MF, the situation is a lot like ET – 60 percent JAK2, 25 percent calreticulin, about 5 to 10 percent MPL. So, the driver mutations – we think of those as the genetic abnormalities that really drive the disease. They’re the main ones we can test for in a diagnostic setting.

I refer to them as the – to a patient, what I’m describing is you have a car, and the driver mutation is the one that’s sort of driving the car, and it’s doing it somewhat recklessly. It’s in the front seat, driving. And, along the way, the driver can pick up hitchhikers, which we should never do. I refer to those other mutations that are found by NGS as hitchhiker mutations that sit in the back seat, cause trouble, and really shouldn’t be there. They’re not the driver, they’re not fully responsible for the disease, but they can make it a bit worse.

Tools to Help You Learn More About MPN Clinical Trials

Tools to Help You Learn More About MPN Clinical Trials from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Research is quickly evolving for essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis (MF), all due to clinical trials. Dr. Laura Michaelis reviews tools for learning about clinical trials and how you can get involved. 

Dr. Laura Michaelis is hematologist specializing in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she also serves as Associate Professor of Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Michaelis here.


Related Resources

 

Promising ET, PV, & Myelofibrosis Therapies

 

Choosing an MPN Treatment: What Option is Best for You?

 

Could an MPN Clinical Trial Be Right for You?


Transcript:

Dr. Michaelis:                       

So, there’s lots and lots of research going on in the field of myeloproliferative neoplasms. One of the best ways to stay informed about this is to check on something called clinicaltrials.gov, which is a national website that warehouses clinical trials in the disease that you might have.

So, if you look up essential thrombocythemia or you look up myelofibrosis, it will show you the clinical trials that are going on in your region, in your state, or in the country. So, that’s a nice way to begin to look and see what’s available.

The other way, of course, is to talk to your doctor. And each institution has a list of clinical trials that they have open, based on what a person’s diagnosis is, what their age is, what other, for example, health issues that they might have. And so, again, when you’re talking to your doctor, say – Is there something I should be thinking about, in terms of clinical trials?

There are clinical trials going on in all facets of the disease – not just in treatment, which is what you often think about. Treatment for symptoms or treatment for ways to control the disease. There are new medicines coming down the road, in terms of what to do when somebody is no longer responding to treatment. Or how can we combine treatments together? Those are important trials, and those are things that people should talk with about their physician.

But there’s also clinical trials on symptom management, and those can sometimes be a trial that you would do online yoga or dietary trials. And there’s trials on familial syndromes, meaning – Yeah, I have polycythemia vera, and my aunt had myelofibrosis, and her daughter has ET. Well, that is a family that should be investigated. And sometimes we find that – even nationally, we find that we’re networking with one another and collecting patients who have family histories so we can learn more about that.

So, there’s a variety of different types of clinical trials. Those are things to talk to your doctor about. And on your own, you can search them out on clinicaltrials.gov or through patient advocacy organizations.

What Are the Treatment Options for Myelofibrosis?

What Are the Treatment Options for Myelofibrosis? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

When choosing a treatment for myelofibrosis (MF), where do you start? Dr. Laura Michaelis reviews the available options for MF therapy, including a discussion of stem cell transplant. 

Dr. Laura Michaelis is hematologist specializing in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she also serves as Associate Professor of Medicine. Learn more about Dr. Michaelis here.


Related Resources

 

Which MPN Treatment is Right for You: Factors to Consider

 

MPNs and Coronavirus: What Patients Should Know

 

MPN Treatment Decisions: Which Path is Best for You?


Transcript:

Dr. Michaelis:                       

So, myelofibrosis is among the most aggressive of the myeloproliferative neoplasms. And yet, it still has a broad swath of risk associated with it. And that means that compared to essential thrombocythemia and polycythemia vera, myelofibrosis – primary myelofibrosis tends to be more aggressive and needs to be treated more aggressively.

There are a group of patients who have what we call low-risk or even intermediate 1 risk myelofibrosis who don’t need treatment – who can be followed, whose blood counts can be checked, who can be regularly seen by their doctor, and who can avoid treatment for some period of time, depending on their risk factors.

And so, if you’re diagnosed with primary myelofibrosis, the first question is do I need treatment? And the second question – if the answer to that is yes, then you have to figure out why you need treatment. There is currently only one intervention that is known to be curative in myelofibrosis, and that’s the use of stem cell transplant.

Stem cell transplant, which is also called bone marrow transplant or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, is basically a procedure where a donor is able to have their stem cells collected. And then the recipient, who’s the person with the myelofibrosis, undergoes a series of chemotherapy treatments to basically wipe out the bone marrow that they have. And it’s then replaced, using basically a blood transfusion of the stem cells of someone else, which then grow up into the recipient.

This has been shown to be safe in myelofibrosis – well, relatively safe – if done in the right person, who’s relatively fit, and done at the right stage of disease. It’s not a procedure that everybody can tolerate. People need to be pretty fit. And it should be performed at a place that has done numerous transplants for myelofibrosis since it’s a relatively complicated form of stem cell transplant. That being said, in the right person at the right time, it’s an excellent opportunity and option for these patients.

Now in patients who can’t tolerate transplant or where that’s not the right step to go, we have medications. And those medications can sometimes delay the worsening of symptoms. They can certainly control spleen size, improve people’s quality of life, and often improve survival. And the medications that we’re talking about here are called JAK-STAT inhibitors.

And the first approved, and the one that’s most commonly used, is a medicine called ruxolitinib.

This is an oral pill – a pill that you take twice a day and has excellent data that supports that it shrinks the spleen in people with myelofibrosis, that it improves symptoms. And in people with advanced polycythemia vera, decreases the blood count without leading to iron deficiency and also improves symptoms and spleen size.

There’s another JAK-STAT inhibitor that’s approved. That’s a medicine called fedratinib. And it was recently approved in people who had progressed off of myelofibrosis or even in people – or after ruxolitinib or in people who – instead of taking ruxolitinib.

Now in essential thrombocythemia, polycythemia vera, and other times even myelofibrosis, we have other treatments that are commonly used that can be exceedingly helpful in controlling symptoms and blood counts. Those include, for example, hydroxyurea, pegylated interferon, and sometimes treatments aimed at helping anemia, like steroids or derivatives of thalidomide.

And finally, I don’t want to let this end without saying that clinical trials are often an excellent possibility for patients with these conditions, like myelofibrosis.

So, when you are contemplating starting a treatment, it’s really important to ask your physician whether or not there’s any clinical trials that are right for you.