Therapeutic Efficacy of Recombinant Interferon-Alpha in Polycythaemia vera

Abstract

The therapeutic efficacy of recombinant interferon-α (rIFN-α) has been evaluated in 7 patients with polycythaemia vera (PV), diagnosed according to the criteria of the Polycythemia Vera Study Group. Six complete responses and one partial response were achieved. Pruritus significantly improved in 80% (4/5) of the cases. Recombinant interferon-α had to be discontinued in 1 patient because of grade 3–4 nephrotoxicity according to WHO criteria. rIFN-α therapy significantly decreased the phlebotomy requirements and improved the mean corpuscular volume, erythrocyte and platelet counts, pruritus complaints and the degree of splenomegaly (p < 0.05). rIFN-α seems to be an effective treatment modality for the myeloproliferation of PV and pruritus complaints.

Interferon alpha therapy in essential thrombocythemia and polycythemia vera—a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Among the identified studies, patients were primarily treated with non-peg-IFN in 31 studies, 11 , 19 , 21 – 25 , 28 , 31 , 32 , 35 – 43 , 45 – 48 , 50 , 52 , 53 , 55 – 57 , 59 , 60 peg-IFN in 12 studies, 9 , 20 , 26 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 33 , 34 , 44 , 49 , 54 and ropegylated-IFN in one study, 51 respectively. Dosing and treatment schedules varied substantially between the individual studies with dose adjustments based on efficacy and adverse events being permitted ( Tables 1 and 2 ).…”

“…The rate of thromboembolic events was reported by 11 studies as outcomes for non-peg-IFN and peg-IFN treated PV patients ( Figure 4 B ). 9 , 27 , 42 , 46 , 49 , 51 , 54 , 55 , 57 , 59 For PV patients, the rate of thromboembolic complications was uniformly low at 0.5% per patient year (95% CI 0.0–1.1%; Cochran’s Q=9.36; p=0.49; I 2 =0%) and was not statistically significantly different (p=0.18) between peg-IFN (0.5% per patient year, I 2 =0%) and non-peg-IFN (2.9% per patient year, I 2 =15.8%).…”