Sangeetha Venugopal, MD, of the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses Myelofibrosis Awareness Day, which is marked on September 20th each year.
Dr. Venugopal said she is “glad we have a specific day for myelofibrosis,” as it helps bring greater awareness to myelofibrosis, which is one of the “rarer of the rare diseases.”
Dr. Venugopal also spoke about how she has seen treatment evolve for myelofibrosis over the past decade.
“We’ve come a long way,” she said.
These advances have helped clinicians and researchers to tailor treatments for patients with myelofibrosis.
“We have had a good understanding of the molecular underpinnings of the disease, and we have a risk stratification system which incorporates genetic markers to make sure that we are triaging the patients appropriately based on the molecular risk,” Dr. Venugopal said.
She spoke about what the advances in treatment and research mean for patients with myelofibrosis.
“This is a great thing for our patients, because if we look at the overall picture of hematological malignancies, myelofibrosis is one of the rarest cancers,” she said.
However, Dr. Venugopal emphasized that “nothing is rare when you are the patient, because you still need to … find an appropriate cure even though it’s rare.”