Bone marrow fibrosis is a rare chronic disease of bone marrow hematopoietic cells. They benefit from JAK2 inhibitor drugs: symptom relief, prolonged survival, and improved quality of life. However, two or three years after starting treatment, some patients develop aggressive B-cell lymphoma. In close collaboration with researchers in Vienna, MedUni and Vetmeduni, JAK2 inhibitors awakened “dormant” lymphoma and cancer in the bone marrow for the first time.
Using bone marrow biopsy at the beginning of the disease, 16% of patients with myelofibrosis were found to have dormant aggressive lymphoma. In about 6% of these patients, when stimulated with JAK2 inhibitors, it bursts. According to hematologists, if sensitive molecular biology techniques are used to actively search for latent lymphoma, it is possible to detect dormant lymphoma. This is the best predictive tool that allows us to screen out 16% of patients identified as high-risk patients before treatment with JAK2 inhibitors.
It was proved in a mouse model that mice that had undergone bone marrow transplantation also developed lymphoma. Multilateral cooperation is a good example of how research has generally become open and the importance of data exchange in medicine. The next step: the collection of international cases and related data has begun to further improve drug safety, and researchers are working closely with pharmaceutical companies that produce these standard drugs. Establish a fast, efficient and groundbreaking bridge between mouse models and clinical discoveries, perfectly combining basic research, preclinical and clinical work to benefit cancer patients.
