Discrepancies in Treatment Goals and Concerns Regarding Disease Management between Patients with Myeloproliferative...

This study was aimed to identify the discrepancies in treatment goals and concerns regarding disease management between patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and hematologists.

A study was conducted among patients with MPNs, including polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), and myelofibrosis (MF), and hematologists in China.

Data from 1,645 respondents with ET, PV, and MF and 715 hematologist respondents were analyzed. Cure of disease and healthy blood counts as treatment goals were reported more by almost half of the respondents with MPNs than by hematologists. However, prevention of thrombotic events, delayed transformation of disease, improvement of symptoms and better quality of life, and reduction in spleen size were less reported by respondents with MPNs than by hematologists. In multivariate analyses, education, comorbidities, symptom burden, disease duration, and annual out-of-pocket expenses for treatment were significantly associated with the treatment goals of respondents with MPNs. However, female physicians and senior professors paid more attention to these goals. Regarding concerns on MPN-related issues, more respondents with MPNs paid more attention to disease knowledge and restrictions in daily life compared to hematologists, whereas the majority of physicians attached importance to medication-related issues.

The perceptions of patients with MPNs and hematologists differed in terms of treatment goals and concerns of management of MPNs. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were associated with the respondents' perspectives on MPNs. Therefore, sufficient patient-physician communication is suggested to improve treatment satisfaction and compliance.