Event-free survival in patients with polycythemia vera treated with Besremi versus best available treatment

[Manouche]

 »Normal life expectancy may be achievable in PV based on comparable overall survival in interferon-treated patients and a matched US population (p = 0.3), contrasting with shortened survival (p = 0.03) in non-interferon treated patients at the same academic center [3]. Although overall survival was not evaluated, our findings lend support to this view, providing the first evidence that the durable hematologic and molecular responses observed with long-term ropeginterferon alfa-2b therapy are accompanied by improved event-free survival. This potential advantage should be considered when evaluating the individual risk-benefit relationship for ropeginterferon alfa-2b treatment in patients with PV »

nature.com/articles/s41375-...

[Elizka]

Thank you for posting! Encouraging for sure.

[monarch5000]

The Silver MPN Center in New York City has found the same results are attainable with Pegasys interferon which is about 4 times less costly than Besremi interferon. USA prices for a one month supply as of Feb. 2022:

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[Lillysue19850705 in reply to monarch5000]

Thanks monarch. Would you mind providing the publication showing the discovery of Silver center? I am quite interested. Thank you.

[monarch5000 in reply to Lillysue19850705]

The Silver MPN Center in New York City treated 470 PV patients over a 30 year period and this is how their outcomes differed depending on their treatment: 20 years after diagnosis:

95% of PV patients who had been treated with interferon were still alive, 15% of them had progressed to post PV myelofibrosis

63% of PV patients who had been treated with hydroxyurea were still alive, 41% of them had progressed to post PV myelofibrosis.

57% of PV patients who had been treated with phlebotomy-only were still alive, 49% of them had progressed to post PV myelofibrosis.

Source: tinyurl.com/544sybph

[Lillysue19850705 in reply to monarch5000]

Thanks for sharing!

[saltmarsh]

Thanks for posting. Encouraging for sure

[EPguy]

The allele reductions are consistent with earlier results for PEG, left plot. (right plot is from the supplement of the subject study) Quite effective for PV.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

These two separate studies have the lowest median VAF is reached about year 5 and a very gradual increase starts after. The Ropeg study was larger so it should have the best info. From the various reports, the increase is driven by the lower responders.

Also these show that the major reductions are in the first two years, suggesting that if large reductions have not happened by then they are not very likely at any later point (on average)

In my 11 months on Bes the largest % reduction was the 1st 6 months. (14%,10,8, and then 7 after starting Rux) But my starting VAF was 14%, more like the ET plot here.

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The PEG study (link above) had 4 pts of 83 discontinue from autoimmune disease toxicity (AD). (40 pts remained at the 1st autoimmune event) It seems thyroid AD is a separate category, being usually less serious. Non thyroid AD is at least 5%, fairly high. The Ropeg study reports no AD that I can find. Could be Besremi is less prone to AD but,

We've seen on the forum there have been a few such reactions t o PEG and Bes among members. My AD on Bes was an extreme. So Ropeg clearly shares this risk to some extent in our real life trial here. But still severe reactions like mine are really rare.

VAF

[Lillysue19850705]

Thanks for sharing this encouraging information!

[PhysAssist]

That's awesome, thanks for the link!

PA