Outcomes with Interferon in Essential Thrombocythemia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Introduction

Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is a BCR-ABL negative myeloproliferative disorder characterized by high burden of symptoms, thrombocytosis, increased risk of thrombosis and bleeding, and risk of progression to Myelofibrosis. Interferon alpha (IFN-α) is a potent immunomodulation agent proposed to be capable of inducing complete hematological remission in patients with myeloproliferative disorders. Many INF- α have been studied for treatment of patients with ET. We present a systematic review and meta-analysis assessing the efficacy of IFN-α therapy in patients with ET.

Methods

Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, a comprehensive literature search was conducted on PubMed, Cochrane, and Clinical trials.gov using MeSH terms and keywords for " Thrombocythemia, Essential " AND " Interferons " in April 2021. We did not place any time constraints. Our search produced a total of 825 records and duplicates were removed. After screening and removing irrelevant and review articles, we included 21 original articles reporting IFN-α as the only treatment for ET in adult patients. The data were collected for baseline characteristics of the participants and efficacy and safety of the intervention. Quality evaluation was done using the NIH quality assessment tool. The inter-study variance was calculated using the Der Simonian-Laird Estimator. Proportions along with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were extracted to compute pooled analysis using the 'meta' package by Schwarzer et al. in the R programming language (version 4.16-2).

Results

A total of 388 patients from 21 articles were evaluated. The median age of participants was 54 (35-62) years and 31% (n=64/205) were males. The type of IFN used were Interferon-alpha in 4 studies, pegylated (PEG)IFN-α-2a in 2 studies, IFN-α-2b in 6 studies, recombinant IFN-α-2C in 3 studies, recombinant IFN-y in 1 study, PEG-IFN-2b in 1 study, recombinant IFN-2b in 2 studies, and PEG-IFN in 1 study. The pooled overall hematological response (OHR) was 86.4% (95% Cl 0.67-0.98, I ²= 65%, p=0.02, n=73) with complete hematological response (CHR) of 70.6% (95% Cl 0.54-0.84, I ²=34%, p=0.21, n=65) and partial hematological response (PHR) of 13% (95% Cl 0.02-0.27, I ²=42%, p=0.16, n=65). The pooled overall molecular response (OMR) was 84% (95% Cl 0.72-0.93, I ²=13%, p=<0.01, n=81) with complete molecular response (CMR) of 64.2% (95% Cl 0.41-0.84, I ²=68%, p=<0.01, n=81) and partial molecular response (PMR) of 35% (95% Cl 0.16-0.56, I ²=33%, p=0.01, n=43). Side effects reported were nausea, allergic reactions, liver dysfunction, dose dependent mild myalgia, fever, malaise, itching, persistent fever, headache, and flu like symptoms.

Conclusion

Interferon alpha, in different formulations shows consistent and high activity in patients with essential thrombocythemia. It resulted in clinical responses, as well as molecular responses. Side effect profiles were consistent among different reports and were reasonable tolerated. There is a large body of evidence supporting actively and safety of this approach in a diverse ET patient population.

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