Patient-Doctor Duo: The Basics of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Myeloproliferative neoplasms, or MPNs, are a type of blood cancer that is often not heard about, which is why it is important for patients to speak with their doctors to learn more.

 

MPNS – essential thrombocythemia, myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera – begin with an abnormal change, or mutation, in a stem cell in the bone marrow, which leads to an overproduction of any combination of white cells, red cells and platelets.

 

In this special edition of the “CURE Talks Cancer” podcast, we teamed up with our sister publication “OncLive on Air” to speak with a patient-doctor duo on the disease. Learn more from Dr. Ruben A. Mesa, director of the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, and Antje Hjerpe, a patient diagnosed with essential thrombocythemia in 1992. The pair discuss myeloproliferative neoplasms – what they are, how they’re treated and how patients can talk to their doctors to be their own best advocates.