Expert Hopes to See New Drug Combinations for MPNs in 2024

While there have been many exciting advancements for the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) in 2023, Dr. Lucia Masarova, is hoping to see continued exploration of non-JAK inhibitors and other drug combinations in 2024.

“I'm looking forward to see how we're going to define to use of non-JAK drugs to combinations to see whether we're going to be able to come up with a plan to combine other JAK inhibitors,” Masarova, who is a member of the department of Leukemia, division of Cancer Medicine at The Unviersity of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said in an interview with CURE® at the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting.

JAK inhibitors, such as Jakafi (ruxolitinib) work by blocking the JAK-STAT pathway, which is regulates how the bone marrow produces blood cells. While Jakafi improves symptoms and quality of life — including reducing spleen volume — there is still no cure for this patient population.

READ MORE: One Step Closer to an MPN Cure

Transcript

I'm looking forward to see how we're going to define to use of non-JAK drugs and combinations to see whether we're going to be able to come up with a plan to combine other JAK inhibitors. Particularly they are the last myelosuppressive. So that'll open space in this area. Hopefully we'll find out how other drugs could work for the accelerated phase that could be combined with any agents we have there in my light field to finally start exploring that in a more kind of consistent fashion.

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