Azacitidine in PMF

Dr Chris Hillis is an assistant professor in the Division of Oncology at McMaster University and hematologist at the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre.

Do you use azacitidine in primary myelofibrosis (PMF)?

Chris Hillis, MD, MSc: Outside of clinical trials we do not use azacitidine in PMF. However, as patients are starting to drop their counts a little bit more or as the peripheral blast count is increasing, we will repeat the bone marrow biopsy. If we see that there is an elevation in the blast count or some early evidence of dysplasia, we will institute azacitidine at that time either in combination with a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor or without it, depending on the clinical scenario.