The current treatment landscape for polycythemia vera

Jerry Spivak, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, gives an overview of the current treatment landscape for polycythemia vera, highlighting the key treatment strategies used such as phlebotomy and chemotherapy. Prof. Spivak shares his thoughts on the use of phlebotomy to maintain a reduced thrombotic risk and how the use of hepcidin mimetics to negatively regulate iron metabolism may reduce the requirement of continuous phlebotomies, but may not necessarily address the issue of hyperviscosity. Additionally, Prof. Spivak addresses issues with phlebotomy-based strategies and describes how these can potentially be overcome with tyrosine kinase inhibitors or recombinant pegylated interferon. This interview took place at the Texas MPN Workshop: Second Annual Workshop and Meeting in 2021.