Purpose of review: Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are recognized for their debilitating symptom burdens. The purpose of this review is to understand the complexity of the MPN symptom burden and identify how validated MPN Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) tools may be integrated into clinical practice to assess the MPN symptom burden.
Recent findings: Significant heterogeneity exists both within and between MPN subtypes. Surrogates of disease burden such as risk scores and MPN chronicity often fail to correlate with symptomatic burden. Validated MPN PROs allow for precise and rapid assessment of the MPN symptom burden in clinical and trial settings. Their growing use among investigators has resulted in improved understanding of how the MPN disease burden and overall patient experience is impacted by novel and traditional therapies. PRO tools are an integral part of National Comprehensive Cancer Center (NCCN) guidelines for MPN treatment and should be regularly employed in disease burden assessment.
Keywords: Essential thrombocythemia; MPN-SAF; Myelofibrosis; Myeloproliferative neoplasm; Polycythemia vera; Symptom.