Cardiovascular Risk and MPNs
While cardiovascular events often accompany MPNs and contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality, the reasons remained unclear until research offered some insight in recent years.
Greater understanding about why and how blood cancers have connections to cardiovascular complications lays the groundwork to using this information to better assess and manage risk factors in MPN patients, according to a 2022 study published in the journal CardioOncology, titled Cardiovascular Disease in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.
People who have essential thrombocythemia (ET) or primary myelofibrosis (MF) and a JAK2 mutation have about twice the risk for arterial thrombotic events (clots in arteries) compared with non-JAK2 mutations. People who have polycythemia vera (PV) with the JAK2 mutation are at increased risk for venous thrombosis (clots in veins) including those that lead to major organs such as the liver and spleen.
So, knowing what MPN mutations a patient has can help inform their medical team’s evaluation of cardiovascular risks, well beyond medical and family history.
Want help getting started taking control of your heart health? This is one of many resources.
The more we learn about thrombosis and cardiovascular risks in MPN patients, the more we are able to study how to prevent them. Laboratory research is the key to identification and trials of new and better solutions.