Who is the best person to treat my myelofibrosis?

Who is the best person to treat my myelofibrosis?

The particular type of physician that would treat myelofibrosis is someone who specializes in hematologic malignancies, and specifically somebody who focuses on patients with myeloid blood disorders, because this is categorized as a chronic myeloproliferative problem. There are a lot of folks who don't have access to larger academic health systems or specialists, and that's okay.

The most important thing is to get care somewhere. Number one. And then number two, if you don't live somewhere where there's an expert or again, these are rare diseases, somebody who treats these diseases all the time, there's always opportunity for second opinions. And really, as you mentioned before, building a health care team.

So working with a local, maybe a community oncologist and collaborating with somebody at perhaps a larger center. And I think that's something that we do all the time. And in a lot of scenarios, it ends up being best case scenario for the patient. So they get some of the expertise, access to perhaps trials, some of this newer information at the larger academic centers, but can get the care in a location that's convenient for them as they maximize your attempt to maximize quality of life.

So I think absolutely, you should see a myelofibrosis specialist, at least once and ideally a couple times a year. But I think the best person to treat myelofibrosis is really a team. So many patients don't live right next to an academic center. And so I think it makes sense to partner with an academic specialist, and your local provider, so that you can have care closer to home, because most of these therapies are now available commercially.

So you can get the drug, be advised by a specialist, and get great care closer to home. Now, I would say, though, that patients should also consider clinical studies. So well-designed clinical studies help not only the patients but also future patients. And there's a lot of research going on in myelofibrosis to really, again, improve care and move the needle forward from just improving symptoms to really eradicating disease.