Comparing QOL, Symptom Burden in Patients With Prefibrotic or Overt Myelofibrosis

A study compared health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and symptom burden in patients with prefibrotic myelofibrosis (MF) and those with overt MF. The findings will be presented at the 65th ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition, which is taking place December 9-12 in San Diego, California.

Giovanni Caocci, MD, and colleagues analyzed baseline data on 104 patients (median age, 68 years) from an ongoing, prospective, multicenter, observational study across 20 community and university-based hospitals. Patients in the population of interest had prefibrotic or overt MF. HRQOL was analyzed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core quality of life questionnaire, which consists of 30 items, 5 functional scales (physical, role, emotional, social, and cognitive), and 4 symptoms (fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and pain), as well as a global health status/QOL scale comprised of 6 single-symptom items (dyspnea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, diarrhea, and financial difficulties).

According to the results, patients with overt MF had a statistically and clinically meaningful worse global HRQOL compared with patients with prefibrotic MF. However, they observed that symptom burden was also high in patients with prefibrotic MF, with one-third of them reporting a high prevalence of fatigue, concentration problems, inactivity, early satiety, abdominal discomfort, night sweats, itching, and bone pain.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is [some] of the first evidence describing HRQOL and the symptom burden of patients with prefibrotic MF. Although our preliminary data suggest that the HRQOL profile of patients with prefibrotic MF was generally worse than those with overt MF, our findings also indicate a high symptom prevalence in patients with prefibrotic MF,” the researchers concluded.

Reference

Grunwald M, Gerds A, Agarwal A, et al. High rate of disease progression in patients with low-risk myelofibrosis (MF) enrolled in the prospective, real-world MOST study. Abstract #3803. Presented at the 65th ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition; December 9-12, 2023; San Diego, California.