Combination therapy with recombinant human erythropoietin, interferon-alpha-2b and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor in idiopathic myelofibrosis

Does anything work for anaemia in myelofibrosis?

Anaemia is a common finding at diagnosis in myelofibrosis, and becomes a symptomatic problem in most patients with time. There are several treatment options for specific anaemia treatment, none of which has been tested in large, randomized, controlled trials. However, as myelofibrosis is not a disease with spontaneous remissions, even non-randomized trials carry weight. In this survey, the existing evidence will be analysed, both for the commonly used treatments like erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, androgens and thalidomide and for the new drugs in the area, and conclusions will be drawn concerning standard clinical anaemia treatment in myelofibrosis, which according to evidence from studies has a 40-50% chance of response in patients with not too advanced disease.

Recombinant human erythropoietin for the treatment of anaemia in patients with chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis

BACKGROUND

Patients with chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis (CIMF) usually present with anaemia. Treatment is often palliative and the majority of patients receive regular red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. Although recombinant human erythropoietin (rhu-EPO) has been proved effective for the treatment of anaemia in several chronic diseases, including haematological malignancies, its role in the treatment of the anaemia in CIMF is not well established. We report the beneficial effect of rhu-EPO administration in 20 patients with CIMF and discuss the parameters predicting favourable response.

PATIENTS

Twenty patients with CIMF (9 women and 11 men) regularly treated with supportive RBC transfusions were included in the study. The median age was 70 years (range 45-81 years). Rhu-EPO, 10,000 U, was given subcutaneously 3 times a week. The median duration of therapy was 83 months, ranging from 13 to 87 months.

RESULTS

Treatment was considered effective if haemoglobin levels increased over 2 g/dl within 12 weeks after enrolment or the RBC transfusion requirements were reduced by 50% within the same interval. Twelve patients (60%) responded to therapy. Responders were mainly female, had smaller spleen size (p = 0.024), low RBC transfusion requirements (< or = 1-2 units per month), and significantly lower endogenous serum erythropoietin (EPO) and beta2-microglobulin (beta2-M) levels when compared with non-responders (p < 0.0001 and 0.00001, respectively). Treatment was well tolerated and none of the patients was withdrawn from the treatment protocol because of side effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Rhu-EPO administration is an effective, safe and well-tolerated treatment for patients with CIMF and anaemia leading to a significant reduction in RBC transfusion requirements. Factors predicting favourable response are low endogenous EPO and beta2-M serum levels and slight to moderate splenomegaly.

Modern management of myelofibrosis

The conventional treatment of myelofibrosis involves a wait-and-see approach for asymptomatic patients, oral chemotherapy for the hyperproliferative forms of the disease, androgens or erythropoietin for the anaemia, and splenectomy in selected patients. Low-dose thalidomide plus prednisone is a well-tolerated therapy for the anaemia and the thrombocytopenia of myelofibrosis, whereas imatinib has shown little efficacy. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is the only curative therapy for myelofibrosis. Its standard modality has an associated mortality of about 30% and can be applied to younger patients with high-risk disease or resistant to conventional treatment. Reduced-intensity conditioning allo-SCT involves a low mortality and is a promising therapy for patients aged 45-70 years old with the above characteristics. Autologous SCT is a palliative therapy for patients resistant to conventional treatment who lack a suitable donor. The next candidates for the treatment of myelofibrosis are the thalidomide derivatives, the proteasome inhibitors, and vascular endothelial growth factor neutralizing antibodies.

Erythropoietin treatment of the anaemia of myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia: results in 20 patients and review of the literature

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) is an effective treatment for the anaemia that occurs secondary to various conditions, but its role in myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia (MMM) is not well established. rHuEPO, at an initial dose of 10 000 U thrice a week, was given to 20 patients with MMM and anaemia. Complete response (CR) was defined as transfusion cessation with normal haemoglobin (Hb) levels and partial response (PR) as a transfusion decrease > or =50% and Hb > 10 g/dl maintained for at least 8 weeks. Nine patients (45%) showed a favourable response to treatment, including four CR and five PR, four of whom have maintained their response at a median follow-up of 12.5 months (range: 4-21 months) from the start of treatment. The pretreatment factors associated with a favourable response were lack of transfusion requirement (P = 0.002) and higher Hb at start treatment of (P = 0.01). An analysis of the present series (n = 20) and 31 patients from the literature identified 28 (55%) favourable responses to rHuEPO, including 16 CR and 12 PR. In the multivariate analysis, serum erythropoietin level <125 U/l was found to be associated with a favourable response to rHuEPO, whereas lack of transfusional support had borderline significance.

Angiogenesis in chronic myeloproliferative diseases detected by CD34 expression

Increased bone marrow angiogenesis estimated as bone marrow microvessel density (MVD), or as serum angiogenic factor levels and/or immunohistochemical expression of these factors in bone marrow biopsy has been demonstrated in a variety of hematological disorders including chronic myeloproliferative diseases (MPDs). The aim of this study was to investigate the MVD in 25 cases of myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia (MMM). MVD was estimated by CD34 immunohistochemical expression in bone marrow biopsies. A control group of 27 patients without bone marrow disease, eight cases of polycythemia vera (PV), 41 cases of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and nine cases of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) were also studied. Moreover, in cases with MMM, MVD was correlated with clinical, laboratory, histological parameters and the outcome of the patients. Our study confirmed a significantly higher degree of angiogenesis in MMM, PV, ET and CML compared with controls (P < 0.001, P = 0.0007, P < 0.001 and P = 0.0008, respectively). Angiogenesis was higher in MMM than PV, ET and CML cases (P < 0.001, P < 0.001 and P = 0.008). Increased angiogenesis was correlated with hypercatabolic symptoms in MMM patients (P = 0.009). No correlation with other clinicopathological parameters or clinical outcome was found. However, definitive conclusions regarding the prognostic value of increased angiogenesis may require additional follow-up and a larger group of patients.

Transplant strategies for idiopathic myelofibrosis

Idiopathic myelofibrosis (IMF) is a clonal stem cell disorder and is one of the four major myeloproliferative disorders, which include essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Patients may be asymptomatic at the early stages, but later progress to marrow fibrosis, splenomegaly with pancytopenia leading to anemia, and other constitutional symptoms. Most of the care available is supportive and only palliates the constitutional symptoms. Prognosis for these patients is dependent on karyotype, hemoglobin count, and age. Stem cell transplantation is the only curative therapy, which results in eradication of the stem cell clone, with the cessation of extramedullary hematopoiesis and resolution of marrow fibrosis and its sequelae. Stem cell replacement therapy using either autologous or allogeneic stem cells has been attempted in small populations of patients with variable benefit. A nonmyeloablative approach has shown promise in a very small number of patients, but additional investigation is required for the ideal management of these patients.

Successful treatment of anemia in idiopathic myelofibrosis with recombinant human erythropoietin

Thirteen patients with idiopathic myelofibrosis (5 osteomyelosclerosis) were treated with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) for transfusion-dependent anemia. All but 7 patients were concomitantly treated with alpha interferon, and 5 patients also received a interferon before the start of erythropoietin (EPO) treatment. All but two patients became transfusion independent. The highly positive results of the present study of transfusion-dependent patients with idiopathic myelofibrosis calls for further studies to delineate more precisely in larger series those patients who are likely to respond to rHuEpo.

Melphalan treatment in patients with myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia

Between January 1985 and December 1992, 104 consecutive patients with symptomatic myelofibrosis with myeloid metaplasia (MMM) [splenic enlargement >5 cm and/or transfusional requirement or Hb < 10 g/dl and/or white blood cell (WBC) count >20 x 10(9)/l and/or platelets >1.0 x 10(9)/l] received low-dose Melphalan (2.5 mg/3 times/week) to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of this approach. Among 99 evaluable patients, 66 (66.7%) achieved a response after a median time of 6.7 months: 26 (26.3%) had a normalization of all clinical and haematological parameters (complete response, CR) and 40 (40.4%) showed an improvement >50% (partial response, PR). Thirty-three patients (33.3%) were resistant. Reversible haematological toxicity was the most common complication. Median durations of CR and PR were 28.4 and 26 months respectively: median survival of CR + PR patients was 71.2 months (95%CI: 33.8-108.7) versus 36.5 months (95%CI: 24.5-48.5) for the non-responders (log-rank test, P =0.002). In the multivariate analysis, the following variables were significantly associated with a shorter survival: anaemia [hazard risk (HR) = 2.7], WBC count >20 x 10(9)/l (HR = 2.4) and not achieving any type of response, either partial or complete (HR = 3.9). In conclusion, Melphalan could be a promising first-line option for MMM patients with clinical or haematological symptoms requiring treatment.

Recombinant human erythropoietin treatment of postpartum anemia. Preliminary results

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) in postpartum anemia.

STUDY DESIGN

At the University Hospital of Ioannina, rHuEpo was administrated subcutaneously to twenty anemic women (hemoglobin [Hb]<10 g/dl), for 15 days following delivery; all were given iron and folic acid per os. Twenty other women (the control group) with postpartum anemia (Hb<10 g/dl), received only iron and folic acid. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used for the comparison of hematological indices between the two groups, on days 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 40 postdelivery.

RESULTS

On day 3, reticulocyte counts were significantly higher in the women who received rHuEpo, as compared to the controls (P<0.05). The mean Hb value increased to >2 g/dl in the group undergoing rHuEpo therapy as compared to 0.7 g/dl in the control group on day 5 (P<0.05). Furthermore, two women in the control group required blood transfusions, while no transfusions were required by the rHuEpo group.

CONCLUSIONS

rHuEpo administration is useful for a more rapid amelioration of hematological indices in women with postpartum anemia. Further, the dose given in this study was not associated with significant side-effects.