Polycythemia Vera

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Polycythemia Vera (P.V.) By Jake K. Period 2
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Polycythemia Vera

• Polycythemia Vera or P.V. is a disease where the
  bone marrow creates too many red blood cells.
• Polycythemia means many cells in the blood
• It is a rare or orphan disease that occurs once
  in every 200,000 people

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What are some symptoms?

• Some early symptoms include
• Fatigue
• A feeling of fullness or bloating in your left
  upper abdomen due to an enlarged spleen
• Chest pain
• Dizziness (including headaches)
• Blood clots

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What are some symptoms?Continued.

• Some major symptoms that include blood clotting
  are
• Stroke
• Sudden difficulty speaking or understanding
  speech (aphasia)
• Sudden numbness, weakness, or paralysis of your
  face, arm or leg usually on one side of your
  body

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How is it Diagnosed?

• For over 100 years P.V. has been known as a
  disease of exclusions.  That means that the
  doctors ruled out every other known disease by
  use of bone marrow biopsies, ultrasounds, CBCs,
  and if the patient didnt have any abnormalities
  of those, then they deduct it must be P.V. 
  However, in March 2005, a team of researchers
  discovered an indicator called JAK 2 (a genetic
  mutation in the protein tyrosine kinase).  Now
  doctors just have to order a test to see if the
  patient carries the JAK2 mutation and if it did,
  then they know the patient has PV. 

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How does P.V affect the body?

• P.V. does not affect the external outside of a
  patients body.
• Two kinds
• 1. Polycythemia- increased amount of red blood
  cells in the blood stream
• 2. Secondary- Polycythemia- limited oxygen due to
  living at high altitude and/or smoking

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Age group

• The age for someone with Polycythemia Vera is
  from age 20-80. The mean or average age is around
  60 years.

It affects mostly older people, but also young
adults and up.
60 year old man (Colonel Sanders)
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Treatment

• Treatments include
• Phlebotomy with a baby aspirin (low dose to help
  thin the blood.)
• Heavier medication such oral chemotherapy -
  Hydroxyurea

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What are Phlebotomies?
Phlebotomies are usually the first option the
patient has. It involves a certain amount of
blood (usually averaging one pint) to be drawn
from the body. Because the blood is removed from
the body, there are less red blood cells to
affect the patient. Patients usually have
phlebotomies more than once and they can happen
on a monthly basis for ones lifetime.
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Any Cures??

• Currently, there are seven clinical trials
  being preformed around the world to test out new
  medication and to see if any of them will be the
  key to cure PV.
• Because there is no exact cause that doctors
  have found for P.V, there is no target cure or
  main cure for the disease. Most patients use
  blood thinners to tone down the red blood cells,
  but those drugs also tone down the count of
  others cells such as white blood cells. Those
  blood thinners are general drugs or, not the
  exact drug that pinpoints red blood cells but all
  cells.

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One Normal Day

• Everyone with PV has it to a certain degree so
  everyones normal day is different.
• For my dad, a normal day is taking his morning
  pills, going for a run, then to work, then at
  night he takes more pills, and once a month he
  will take a blood test (CBC) to see if everything
  is okay.

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Is it Expensive?

• The medication for Polycythemia Vera is
  expensive, but if youre lucky enough to have
  insurance, it covers most of the medication.
• With my dads splenectomy (removal of the spleen)
  however, the insurance covered most of the
  procedure but the overall total amount was still
  costly for us.
• Overall, insurance covers most of the procedures,
  medicine, etc. so its not typically too costly
  for our family.

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Conclusion

• The main reason I chose this disease was
  because my father has it and in some ways it has
  changed my familys life. During my research, I
  have found that there are two types of
  Polycythemia Vera. My main source of information
  was between the MPD Foundation and my dad. I
  still would like to figure out what causes the
  disease given the fact it is still unknown. I do
  believe my downfall would be that there is no
  exact cause for P.V. and that does take away some
  great research topics that I could of used. In
  conclusion I had a blast learning what and how
  P.V. does and how it affects the people who have
  it.

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Diagram 1
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Diagram 1 explanation

• This graph shows the over-production of red blood
  cells, white blood cells and blood platelets
• Also it shows the B19 Parvovirus Capside that
  might be the cause of P.V.

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Diagram 2P.V. Therapies
Mesa et.al. Cancer 200710968 -76
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Bibliography

• "canada.com ." canada.com - search. N.p., n.d.
  Web. 14 Mar 2010. lthttp//polycythemiaveraproducts
  .com/ htmlgt.
• "Medline Plus." Polycythemia vera Medline Plus
  Medical Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar
  2010. http//www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/arti
  cle/000589.htm.
• "Polycythemia Vera." Polycythemia Vera. N.p.,
  n.d. Web. 14 Mar 2010. http//www.som.tulane.edu/c
  lassware/pathology/Krause/PV/PV.html.
• "Polycythemia vera." Polycythemia vera -
  MayoClinic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar 2010.
  lthttp//www.mayoclinic.com/health/polycythemia-ver
  a/DS00919gt.
• K., Sam. Intervew by Jake Klepper. 14 Mar 2010.
  Print.

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Interview