Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a life-threatening complication of allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT) that occurs in half of the patients who undergo the procedure. Although corticosteroids are the first-line treatment options for GvHD, a majority of patients become refractory towards them. Ruxolitinib is a Janus kinase (JK)1/JK2 inhibitor that demonstrated notable efficacy over best available treatment (BAT) in the initial analysis of the REACH3 study, exhibiting significantly higher overall response rate (ORR) at 24 weeks of treatment (49.7% vs. 25.6%; p<0.0001).

In the management of myelofibrosis (MF), Dynamic International Prognostic Scoring System (DIPSS) and DIPSS-plus are commonly used prognostic scoring systems for stratifying the risks of patients and guiding treatment decisions.¹ However, these scoring systems do not fully reflect the totality of symptom burden of MF patients.¹ In reality, some MF patients with lower risk scores could be highly symptomatic, and treatments are needed to reduce the spleen length, alleviate their symptoms and improve their quality of life (QoL).¹ In an interview with Omnihealth Practice, Dr. Harry Gill discussed the unmet treatment needs in patients with symptomatic low- or intermediate-1 (INT-1)-risk MF (as per DIPSS and DIPSSplus) and shared 2 clinical cases to demonstrate the benefits of early treatment with ruxolitinib in symptomatic low- or INT-1-risk MF patients.