Stiffer Spleen Predicts Higher Bone Marrow Fibrosis and Higher JAK2 Allele Burden in Patients With Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Riccardo Moia; Micol Giulia Cittone; Paola Boggione; Giulia Francesca Manfredi; Chiara Favini; Bassel Awikeh; Anita Rebecca Pedrinelli; Abdurraouf Mokhtar Mahmoud; Maura Nicolosi; Mattia Bellan; Pier Paolo Sainaghi; Mario Pirisi; Gianluca Gaidano; Andrea Patriarca; Cristina Rigamonti

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.777730

Stiffer Spleen Predicts Higher Bone Marrow Fibrosis and Higher JAK2 Allele Burden in Patients With Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Front Oncol. 2021 Oct 26:11:777730. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.777730. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Division of Hematology, Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy.
² Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Translational Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale and Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy.

Abstract

A total of 63 myeloproliferative neoplasms [MPN; 9 polycythemia vera (PV), 32 essential thrombocythemia (ET), and 22 myelofibrosis (MF)] underwent spleen stiffness (SS) measurement by vibration-controlled transient elastography equipped with a novel spleen-dedicated module. Higher SS values significantly correlated with grade 2-3 bone marrow (BM) fibrosis (p=0.035), with hemoglobin level <10 g/dl (p=0.014) and with white blood cells ≥10,000/μl (p=0.008). Median SS was significantly higher in MF patients compared to ET and PV (p=0.015). SS also correlated with higher JAK2 variant allele frequency (p=0.02). This study identifies SS as a potential noninvasive tool that reflects BM fibrosis and the mutational burden in MPN.

Keywords: JAK2 mutations; NGS; myeloproliferative neoplasms; spleen stiffness; vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE).