Combination therapy with ruxolitinib plus low-dose cytarabine or mercaptopurine in patients with blast-phase myelofibrosis

Patients with myelofibrosis in blast-phase commonly have a median overall survival of only 3–6 months. Given the older median age of onset and heavy pretreatment, intensive chemotherapy often is not appropriate and has low efficacy with high toxicity. Ruxolitinib (a JAK1/2 inhibitor) has provided significant clinical benefits in patients with chronic phase myelofibrosis. We report our experience of treating blastphase myelofibrosis patients with the combination therapy of ruxolitinib plus low dose mercaptopurine or low-dose cytarabine. The cases presented here demonstrated the feasibility and tolerability of combination continuous ruxolitinib treatment with mercaptopurine or low-dose cytarabine for patients with blast-phase myelofibrosis. The efficacy of these combination regimens is encouraging.