Alpha Interferon as Initial Treatment of Essential Thrombocythemia. Analysis after Two Years of Follow-Up

Abstract

In our study, lower doses were administered compared with previous short-time trials. The present data show that interferon is an effective alternative to cytostatic agents in long-term treatment of patients with essential thrombocythemia, even when used at lower dosages.

Essential thrombocythaemia in children

“…Interferon‐α therapy is effective and should be considered under certain circumstances (Pogliani et al , 1995). However, its cost, availability in injectable form only and potential toxicity prevent its use as an initial therapy.…”

“…However, its cost, availability in injectable form only and potential toxicity prevent its use as an initial therapy. Side‐effects include flu‐like syndrome, neuropsychiatric symptoms, autoimmune phenomena and cytopenia (Seewan et al , 1991; Pogliani et al , 1995). In addition, its long‐term toxicity is unknown.…”

Interferon-α Therapy in Polycythemia Vera and Essential Thrombocythemia

“…Time to achieve maximal hematologic remission has been corre lated with the dose of interferon used and the initial platelet count. 46,54 Long-term data confirm the ability of IFN-α to maintain adequate disease control for periods longer than 5 years. 39 After the initial induction therapy and the achievement of a good hematologic remission, longterm disease control can be achieved with lower-dose maintenance therapy.…”

“…35,36 IFN-α has also been shown to have therapeutic activity in PV [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] and ET. [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] As yet, no prospective randomized trials com paring the efficacy of IFN-α with standard treatments have been performed; however, the results of several sin gle-arm studies have been reported. [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] These studies have demonstrated the ability of IFN-α to control the ex uberant erythrocytosis and thrombocytosis associated with these disorders and suggest possible advantages over the currently available treatment regimens.…”

“…70,71 Since then, several investigators have reported on the therapeutic effects of IFN-α in the treat ment of ET (Table 1). These include the effective con trol of thrombocytosis, [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] the resolution of spleno megaly in a significant proportion of patients, 49,50,53 and the control of disease-associated symptoms. 47,49,52,54 The salient features of some of the larger series with long-term follow-up are presented in Table 1.…”