Abstract
Interferon alpha (IFNa) and hydroxyurea (HU) are recommended for cytoreductive treatment of polycythaemia vera (PV),1 a Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasm characterized by deregulated hematopoiesis driven by mutated constitutive-active JAK2. In addition to its ability to induce hematologic responses, IFNa has disease-modifying properties as shown by the high rate of reduction of the mutant JAK2V617F allele burden.
In elderly patients with PV, however, a higher number of toxicity-related dose reductions or discontinuations and lower hematological response rates have been reported among IFNa-treated patients compared to HU.