Unmet Needs Remain in Treating Post-MPN Acute Leukemia

Gabriela Hobbs, MD, the clinical director of Leukemia Service and assistant in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the unmet needs that have yet to be filled in the post-myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) acute leukemia space.

According to Hobbs, not many clinical trials exist which are specifically designed for this group of patients as the majority of studies are aimed at treating individuals with acute myeloid leukemia. Because of this, a high demand remains for more trials to begin in the post-MPN acute leukemia space.

Additionally, understanding the genetics and the biology of patients with post-MPN acute leukemia further will allow for experts to design more in-depth trials which will better treat these mutations.

Transcription:

0:08 | I think the first thing is just to have more dedicated clinical trials for this group of patients, which is difficult because there aren't that many of these patients. Any clinical trial that does happen for this disease group would need to be a multicenter study. That, I would say, is the biggest unmet need. And then, I think additionally, is further understanding of the genetics and the biology of post-myeloproliferative neoplasm acute leukemia, to help us to better design trials that treat the mutations that these patients have.

0:47 | One thing that's important to highlight is although patients with essential thrombocytosis and polycythemia vera are usually thought to have indolent hematologic malignancies. It's important to remember that these rare complications like transformations to myelofibrosis, and transformation to leukemia actually do happen. Even though they don't happen frequently, we need to just remember that they do happen so that we're able to recognize them.