The presence of monoclonal gammopathy in Ph-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms is associated with a detrimental effect on outcomes

Abstract

Many case reports have indicated the occurrence of monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS) or multiple myeloma (MM) in patients with Ph-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), but few cohorts of patients have been published. This study concerns 667 patients newly diagnosed with polycythemia vera (PV) or essential thrombocythemia (ET) who were tested for monoclonal (M) protein at diagnosis (13.9% of patients). The overall survival of patients with M protein was dramatically lower than that of patients without M protein (12.7 versus 22.4 years; p = .0132). Univariate analysis identified the presence of M protein as a potential risk factor for the secondary occurrence of myelofibrosis (p = .02), myelodysplastic syndrome (p = .043), and MM/Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (p < .0001). Our cohort shows that the presence of M proteins in patients with PV or ET leads to a poor prognosis. We believe that testing for M protein could help practicians to identify such patients.

Keywords:

• Ph-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms
• monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance
• overall survival
• thrombosis
• myelofibrosis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Sally Ferguson (Alba Traduction Society) for her English proofreading.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1312380.