Decrease in JAK2 V617F allele burden is not a prerequisite to clinical response in patients with polycythemia vera.

Background: Although reduction in the JAK2(V617F) allele burden (%V617F) has been suggested as a criterion for defining disease response to cytoreductive therapy in polycythemia vera, its value as a response monitor is unclear. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a reduction in %V617F in polycythemia vera is a prerequisite to achieving hematologic remission in response to cytoreductive therapy.

Design And Methods: We compared the clinical and hematologic responses to change in %V617F (molecular response) in 73 patients with polycythemia vera treated with either interferon (rIFNα-2b: 28, Peg-rIFNα-2a: 18) or non-interferon drugs (n=27), which included hydroxyurea (n=8), imatinib (n=12), dasatinib (n=5), busulfan (n=1), and radioactive phosphorus (n=1).

Treatment of polycythemia vera with imatinib mesylate.

We treated 37 patients with polycythemia vera with imatinib mesylate (IM). The overall response rate was 49%. Thirty percent had a complete response, and 19%, a partial response.

Recombinant interferon-α may retard progression of early primary myelofibrosis: a preliminary report.

The limited effects of current treatments of primary myelofibrosis (PM) led us to prospectively evaluate recombinant interferon-α (rIFNα) in "early" PM patients with residual hematopoiesis and only grade 1 or 2 myelofibrosis. Seventeen patients meeting World Health Organization PM diagnostic criteria received either rIFNα-2b 500 000 to 3 million units 3 times weekly, or pegylated rIFNα-2a 45 or 90 μg weekly. International Working Group for Myelofibrosis Research and Treatment criteria for prognosis and response were used.

A 10-year follow-up of treatment outcomes in patients with early stage breast cancer and clinically negative axillary nodes treated with tangential breast irradiation following sentinel lymph node dissection or axillary clearance.

We compare long-term outcomes in patients with node negative early stage breast cancer treated with breast radiotherapy (RT) without the axillary RT field after sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND) or axillary lymph node dissection (ALND). We hypothesize that though tangential RT was delivered to the breast tissue, it at least partially sterilized occult axillary nodal metastases thus providing low nodal failure rates. Between 1995 and 2001, 265 patients with AJCC stages I-II breast cancer were treated with lumpectomy and either SLND (cohort SLND) or SLND and ALND (cohort ALND).

JAK2(V617F) allele burden in polycythemia vera correlates with grade of myelofibrosis, but is not substantially affected by therapy.

In a series of 105 patients with polycythemia vera, we retrospectively determined whether the JAK2(V617F) mutation correlated with severity of disease phenotype. Higher JAK2(V617F) allele burden correlated with more advanced myelofibrosis, greater splenomegaly, and higher white blood cell count, but not with age, gender, hematocrit level, or frequency of phlebotomy prior to cytoreductive therapy. Although a subgroup at increased risk for thrombosis was not clearly defined, there was a suggestion that frequency of thrombosis increased as the JAK2(V617F) allele burden increased.