Supportive care and symptom burden in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Abstract

e21684 Background: Pharmacologic therapy stabilizes hematologic counts and splenomegaly in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), however only partial symptom improvement typically occurs. Evidenced-based supportive care interventions are needed, however data is limited in patients with MPNs. Methods: Patients were recruited internationally via social media. Informed consent and online self-report surveys (Qualtrics) were completed capturing patient demographics, disease specific data, supportive care utilization, and symptom burden via MPN-SAF TSS. ANOVA, chi square tests, and Wilcoxon rank sum tests methods were applied. Results: Patients:1087 patient surveys were consented. Of these, 858 had 10 or more responses. There were 338 essential thrombocytosis (ET), 188 myelofibrosis (MF), 315 polycythemia vera (PV), and 17 other. In MF: DIPSS risk categories included low (8%), Int-1 (19%), Int-2 (29%), high (12%), and unknown (32%). Supportive care:The most frequently utilized therapies were aerobic activity in 442 patients (51.5%), massage in 244 (28.4%), yoga in 220(25.6%), nutrition in 216 (25.1%), and strength training in 204 (23.7%). Symptom association: Among all respondents, aerobic activity (p=<0.001), massage (p=<0.001), yoga (p=0.02), and strength training (p=<0.001) was associated with lower symptom burden by the MPN-SAF TSS however, nutrition was not (p=0.10). In ET and PV subgroups, yoga intervention was no longer statistically significant (p=0.35, p=0.14). In the MF subgroup, no intervention was found to be significant in any risk category. Conclusions: Supportive care with aerobic activity, massage, yoga, and strength training is associated with improved symptom burden in patients with MPN. Further studies are needed to understand the benefits of such therapies. [Table: see text]