Evaluating Prognosis and Treatment Options for Patients With Myelofibrosis

Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the current understandings of how myelofibrosis (MF) presents in patients.

MF is a heterogenous disease and can present in a number of different ways, says Pemmaraju. For patients with low-risk disease, according to the International Prognostic Scoring System, MF will present similarly to a chronic disease, such as essential thrombocytopenia or polycythemia vera. Life expectancy can be measured in decades for these patients. However, patients who present with intermediate- to high-risk disease may be ill when they come into the clinic; they present with various symptoms and can become sick quickly from the disease itself.