Clinical efficacy of ruxolitinib in patients with myelofibrosis: A nationwide population‐based study in Korea

Byung Hyun Lee, Hyemi Moon, Jae Eun Chae, Ka Won Kang, Byung Soo Kim, Juneyoung Lee, Yong Park

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    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Previous studies have reported the survival benefit after ruxolitinib treatment in patients with myelofibrosis (MF). However, population‐based data of its efficacy are limited. We analyzed the effects of ruxolitinib in MF patients with data from the Korean National Health Insurance Database. In total, 1199 patients diagnosed with MF from January 2011 to December 2017 were identified, of which 731 were included in this study. Patients who received ruxolitinib (n = 224) were matched with those who did not receive the drug (n = 507) using the 1:1 greedy algorithm. Propensity scores were formulated using five variables: age, sex, previous history of arterial/venous thrombosis, and red blood cell (RBC) or platelet (PLT) transfusion dependence at the time of diagnosis. Cox regression analysis for overall survival (OS) revealed that ruxolitinib treatment (hazard ratio (HR), 0.67; p = 0.017) was significantly related to superior survival. In the multivariable analysis for OS, older age (HR, 1.07; p < 0.001), male sex (HR, 1.94; p = 0.021), and RBC (HR, 3.72; p < 0.001) or PLT (HR, 9.58; p = 0.001) transfusion dependence were significantly associated with poor survival, although type of MF did not significantly affect survival. Considering evidence supporting these results remains weak, further studies on the efficacy of ruxolitinib in other populations are needed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number4774
    JournalJournal of Clinical Medicine
    Volume10
    Issue number20
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021 Oct 1

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Keywords

    • Myelofibrosis
    • National Health Insurance
    • Prognosis
    • Propensity score
    • Ruxolitinib

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Medicine

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