Dr. Mesa on Pacritinib for Myelofibrosis

Ruben A. Mesa, MD, deputy director, Mayo Clinic, discusses PERSIST-1, a phase III study that examined pacribitinib as a treatment for myelofibrosis.

Myelofibrosis is a chronic myeloid neoplasm that inflicts patients with splenomegaly symptoms and potential low blood counts, Mesa explains.

The PERSIST-1 study randomized patients with the bone marrow cancer to receive pacritinib or best alternative therapy. The novel JAK2 inhibitor has demonstrated improvements in splenomegaly symptoms in previous studies, he adds. The study enrolled patients with intermediate- and high-risk disease and did not exclude patients with severe thrombocytopenia.

Results demonstrated that pacritinib was superior to the best alternative therapy in all endpoints, including one reduction in spleen volume, improvement in disease-related symptoms, and an increase in platelet counts. Twenty-five percent of patients in the study who were red blood cell transfusion dependent became transfusion independent, Mesa says.