What are the risk factors for developing myelofibrosis?

What are the risk factors for developing myelofibrosis?

Risk factors for myelofibrosis include older age. So most patients are over the age of 50 when they're diagnosed. There's also links to certain chemical exposures like toluene. So if you are a nail technician you're often exposed to toluene if you're a painter. The fumes from the paint thinners and paint itself can have toluene.

Benzene exposure is another risk. So if you work nearby, under or around gas barrels that are leaking or work in a plastic factory. Benzene is also in cigarettes. So cigarette smoking is a big risk factor for myeloproliferative neoplasms, which include myelofibrosis.

Certain high-dose ionizing radiation, like a Chernobyl exposure, for instance, can also predispose to myelofibrosis. Some of the risk factors are having a preceding bone marrow disorder. One of those is having other types of myeloproliferative disorders. The classic ones are probably polycythemia vera, which is abnormal production of red blood cells, or essential thrombocythemia, which is abnormal production of platelets.

These two disorders have a long history. But at the end of many years, oftentimes decades, many of these patients progress to myelofibrosis. Or patients can be diagnosed de novo just having abnormal blood counts. Some of the risk factors are having one of those disorders of a myeloproliferative disorder. Having a family member with it, having an autoimmune disorder, and of course, some of the known risk factors of unhealthy lifestyle, such as smoking.