Efficacy of Hydroxyurea : A Cytoreductive Agent in Patients with Essential Thrombocytosis - A Single Center Experience

Hydroxyurea is an anti cancer chemotherapeutic drug .For high risk patients of essential thromocytosis (ET) , interferon and hydroxyurea are available agents in India to reduce their platelet count. Interferon is not an attractive agent due to its parentral mode of delivery and systemic side effects. Here, we aim to evaluate the efficacy of hydroxyurea in these subset of patients to normalize their platelet counts. This Retrospective study was conducted in the department of medical oncology and hematology at Amrita institute of medical science. We collected the data by reviewing the electronic medical records of the patients with ET in which 23 patients were seen to be at high risk for thrombotic events,Out of these 23 high risk patients 17 were females and 6 were males and belonged to the mean age of 55.17 years. We found that 37.5 % showed complete response, 41.67 % showed partial response and 16.67 % showed no response. From this study we could observe that only 80% of patients benefited from hydroxyurea therapy and there is unmet need for an oral cytoreductive agent with good safety profile in ET.