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BSH 2017 | Patient and physician perceptions on the symptomatic and economic burden of MPNs

Claire Harrison, MD, DM, FRCP, FRCPath of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK gives an overview of her talk on patient and physician perceptions on the symptomatic and economic burden of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) presented at the 2017 British Society for Haematology (BSH) Annual Scientific Meeting in Brighton, UK. At BSH, they presented data from the LANDMARK study which focused on various aspects of the patients’ lives, including their demographics and symptom burden as well as quality of life. Patients with polycythemia vera (PV) in particular, had symptoms lasting over two years before the time of diagnosis. The most prevalent symptom across all three diseases, myelofibrosis (MF), PV and essential thrombocythemia (ET), was fatigue; fatigue is an area of unmet need as Prof. Harrison explains. Further, 30-40% of patients are working but a large number had to take time off work or had reduced their hours. While there is absenteeism, there is also presenteeism; one-third of patients were at work but felt ill. In the second presentation on the LANDMARK study, the focus was on perception of disease. The physicians generally felt that they didn’t have enough time to discuss symptoms while approximately 70% of patients felt satisfied with the amount of time physicians spent discussing their symptoms. Moreover, the goals of therapy for physicians were to improve symptoms, quality of life and reduce spleen size while for patients the overriding aspiration for therapy was to slow or delay progression of their disease.