Hematology
Clinical discussions on blood disorders, coagulation, transfusion medicine, and hematologic malignancies.
Recent Discussions
How do you manage endocrine therapy for premenopausal women with breast cancer who are heterozygous for factor V Leiden but have no history of thrombosis?
This is a difficult situation given that the literature is contradictory on this topic. Both tamoxifen and a factor V Leiden mutation independently increase risk of thromboembolic events. It is unclear whether, together, they would be additive in conferring risk of thrombosis. Dr. Cuzick wrote a ver...
How do you approach a patient with recurrent VTE who develops VTE again after reduction of apixaban to 2.5 mg bid?
Several factors play into this decision for me. Is the patient obese? Obese patients tend to give me pause for dose-reduction of DOACs. As such, half-dose apixaban may have been relatively underdosed for an obese patient and I would not call it DOAC failure, rather I would increase the dose to usua...
Do you choose to include or omit growth factor support in the treatment of Hodgkins lymphoma?
I typically do not use "up front" growth factor support unless my patient is frail. If symptomatic neutropenia develops during therapy I will add growth factor support at that time. For the patient with asymptomatic neutropenia I will continue therapy and individualize the decision for the addition ...
How do you approach a patient with high titer ANA and a new diagnosis of ITP, but no other signs or symptoms suggestive of active rheumatologic disease?
I would certainly treat the ITP with hematology involvement if necessary but would continue to monitor for lupus or similar CTDs. I have seen patients present with an ITP-like picture for years before lupus declared itself eventually. It may take years. I would also check a UA for proteinuria. This ...
How do you incorporate CAR-T cell therapy for DLBCL in transplant-eligible patients?
The role of sequential therapy including CARs vs high dose chemotherapy + ASCT post primary induction failure/relapse in large cell lymphoma is a matter of active research. Given the present FDA indication of CARs is in relapsed/refractory large cell lymphoma after failure of at least 2 lines of pri...
Does stopping anagrelide affect fibrosis in patients with ET who develop post-ET myelofibrosis?
Anagrelide is a phosphodiesterase (PDE) III inhibitor, developed initially as a platelet antiaggregant, but was found to have platelet lowering activity at concentrations lower than its platelet antiaggregant activity. Thus, it was consequently marketed to reduce thrombocytosis in MPN patients. It i...
Would you recommend an allogenic stem cell transplant in an older patient > 50 with Ph negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia who is MRD negative after induction?
In general, I would not routinely recommend allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for Ph- acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that is in MRD-negative remission this early in their treatment. This sort of response demonstrates significant chemosensitivity. Therefore, I would favor contin...
Is there any indication for IVIG in immunocompromised patients with only decreased IgM and/or IgA levels?
Nope. IVIG preparations contain IgG not IgA or IgM. Low serum IgA may or may not be associated with low IgA levels in mucosal surfaces leading to a risk of local infections. Low levels of one or both may be asymptomatic but in the right setting might suggest a need for evaluation of plasma cell dysc...
Are you more permissive of perioperative interruption of anticoagulation for VTE depending on the location and relative chronicity of the thrombus?
Yes - in general, I try to balance the relative urgency/importance of the procedure or surgery v. the thrombotic risk to the patient of a period of time off of anticoagulation. Location and chronicity both can feed into determining thrombotic risk. An upper extremity DVT, in general, has a lower rec...
How would you manage symptomatic superficial vein thrombosis during pregnancy?
The best evidence for the treatment of SVT comes from the CALISTO trial, which endorsed a prophylactic dose of fondaparinux as the treatment of choice. However, the CALISTO trial excluded pregnant women. Because data on the use of fondaparinux in pregnancy remain limited, with some traces of fondapa...