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Arthritis drug reduces symptoms in myeloproliferative neoplasms

The results of a new breakthrough study led by the University of Sheffield suggest low-dose methotrexate (MTX) reduces constitutional symptoms in patients with polycythaemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythaemia (ET).

The study examined the effect of low‐dose MTX on constitutional symptoms reported by three PV and eight ET patients as assessed by myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN)10 scoring.

Overall, patients taking low‐dose MTX reported statistically significantly lower and less variable MPN10 total symptom scores compared with historic controls. When considered individually, most symptoms were less prevalent in MTX‐MPN patients, with lower mean scores in nine of 10 symptoms in PV and for all symptoms in ET. In particular, values for night sweats and fever were reduced in both diseases, whereas significant reductions in abdominal discomfort, pruritus and bone pain were reported by ET patients.

Co-author, Dr Martin Zeidler from the University of Sheffield said: "While we still need to undertake a clinical trial to validate these findings, our results are very encouraging and suggest that a simple drug that has been used for nearly 40 years to treat arthritis can provide significant relief to blood cancer sufferers.”

"Patients we tested showed a pronounced improvement in symptoms, something conventional treatments have been unable to provide,” he said.

The research is published in the British Journal of Haematology.


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