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Abstract
Traditional treatment of primary (idiopathic) immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) predominantly consists of immune suppression and/or modulation. In addition, many treated patients develop severe adverse effects, and approximately a third of patients do not respond. Two of the newly developed thrombopoietin-receptor agonists, romiplostim and eltrombopag, are now available for the treatment of ITP. Both drugs have been shown to increase the production of platelets in a dose-dependent manner, and to compensate, at least partly, for thrombocytopenia in the majority of ITP patients. The reported adverse effects are predominantly mild, although serious and long-term side effects cannot be excluded. Nevertheless, these drugs are increasingly used in the treatment of patients with thrombocytopenias. Thrombopoietin-receptor agonists do not appear to stop either the production of autoantibodies or the accelerated platelet destruction observed in ITP. Thus, the need for a specific therapy is essential, and the ultimate solution is to clarify and halt the mechanism(s) that lead to the development of ITP.
Financial and competing interests disclosure
Abdulgabar Salama has participated in Advisory Boards for Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline. He is involved as a principle investigator in clinical studies dealing with elthrombopag (GlaxoSmithKline), and Nplate® (Amgen). He has received accommodation expenses from Biotest, Octapharma, CSL Behring and Intersero for scientific meetings. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.