TY - JOUR
T1 - Clinical efficacy of ruxolitinib in patients with myelofibrosis
T2 - A nationwide population‐based study in Korea
AU - Lee, Byung Hyun
AU - Moon, Hyemi
AU - Chae, Jae Eun
AU - Kang, Ka Won
AU - Kim, Byung Soo
AU - Lee, Juneyoung
AU - Park, Yong
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - Previous studies have reported the survival benefit after ruxolitinib treatment in patients with myelofibrosis (MF). However, population‐based data of its efficacy are limited. We analyzed the effects of ruxolitinib in MF patients with data from the Korean National Health Insurance Database. In total, 1199 patients diagnosed with MF from January 2011 to December 2017 were identified, of which 731 were included in this study. Patients who received ruxolitinib (n = 224) were matched with those who did not receive the drug (n = 507) using the 1:1 greedy algorithm. Propensity scores were formulated using five variables: age, sex, previous history of arterial/venous thrombosis, and red blood cell (RBC) or platelet (PLT) transfusion dependence at the time of diagnosis. Cox regression analysis for overall survival (OS) revealed that ruxolitinib treatment (hazard ratio (HR), 0.67; p = 0.017) was significantly related to superior survival. In the multivariable analysis for OS, older age (HR, 1.07; p < 0.001), male sex (HR, 1.94; p = 0.021), and RBC (HR, 3.72; p < 0.001) or PLT (HR, 9.58; p = 0.001) transfusion dependence were significantly associated with poor survival, although type of MF did not significantly affect survival. Considering evidence supporting these results remains weak, further studies on the efficacy of ruxolitinib in other populations are needed.
AB - Previous studies have reported the survival benefit after ruxolitinib treatment in patients with myelofibrosis (MF). However, population‐based data of its efficacy are limited. We analyzed the effects of ruxolitinib in MF patients with data from the Korean National Health Insurance Database. In total, 1199 patients diagnosed with MF from January 2011 to December 2017 were identified, of which 731 were included in this study. Patients who received ruxolitinib (n = 224) were matched with those who did not receive the drug (n = 507) using the 1:1 greedy algorithm. Propensity scores were formulated using five variables: age, sex, previous history of arterial/venous thrombosis, and red blood cell (RBC) or platelet (PLT) transfusion dependence at the time of diagnosis. Cox regression analysis for overall survival (OS) revealed that ruxolitinib treatment (hazard ratio (HR), 0.67; p = 0.017) was significantly related to superior survival. In the multivariable analysis for OS, older age (HR, 1.07; p < 0.001), male sex (HR, 1.94; p = 0.021), and RBC (HR, 3.72; p < 0.001) or PLT (HR, 9.58; p = 0.001) transfusion dependence were significantly associated with poor survival, although type of MF did not significantly affect survival. Considering evidence supporting these results remains weak, further studies on the efficacy of ruxolitinib in other populations are needed.
KW - Myelofibrosis
KW - National Health Insurance
KW - Prognosis
KW - Propensity score
KW - Ruxolitinib
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117105005&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/jcm10204774
DO - 10.3390/jcm10204774
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85117105005
VL - 10
JO - Journal of Clinical Medicine
JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine
SN - 2077-0383
IS - 20
M1 - 4774
ER -