Does Hydroxycarbamide therapy really induce leukemic transformation in patients with essential thrombocythemia?

Hydroycarbamide (HC) has been used extensively to treat patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) for over 4 decades. Since HC is a chemotherapeutic agent there continues to be concern that use of this agent may increase the risk of patients developing a form of acute leukemia. The BCR-ABL1-negative MPNs including polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and myelofibrosis (MF) are clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders which have the potential to progress to acute myeloid leukemia, termed MPN-blast phase (BP).
Source: Leukemia Research - Category: Hematology Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research