CONTENTS:
- Reviving the Past to Predict the Future: Scintigraphy
- Understanding Rilzabrutinib: A New FDA-Approved Therapy for ITP
Reviving the Past to Predict the Future: Scintigraphy
In ITP, indium-labeled platelet scintigraphy or indium-labeled scans show where platelets are being destroyed in ITP—usually the spleen, sometimes the liver—which can help guide treatment decisions like whether splenectomy might be helpful.
One of the most unexpected highlights of the ASH ITP Breakfast meeting was the “Back to the Future” presentation by Dr. Sandhya Panch from the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, discussing the use of indium-labeled scintigraphy. Although this imaging technique was widely used in the 1970s, it has largely fallen out of favor in the United States due to its technical complexity.
Recent data from Australia, Spain, and France, however, demonstrate that scintigraphy remains a powerful tool for predicting the success of splenectomy. Patients with a purely splenic sequestration pattern show response rates of 80–95%, whereas those with hepatic sequestration are far less likely to benefit. Given the lifelong risks of infection and thrombosis associated with splenectomy, Dr. Panch argued that scintigraphy could be reintroduced to support more informed, evidence-based surgical decision-making.
PDSA will share additional exciting research highlights from the ITP Breakfast at ASH in an upcoming issue of The Platelet News, including predictors of response to TPO-RAs, the role of genetic testing in pediatric ITP, and why treatments such as rituximab may fail—all complimentary to PDSA members. If you are not a PDSA member, you can sign up here: https://pdsa.org/give-back/become-member
Understanding Rilzabrutinib: A New FDA-Approved Therapy for ITP
In late August, the FDA approved rilzabrutinib (Wayrilz) as a new treatment for people living with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Rilzabrutinib is the first treatment of its kind approved for ITP and represents a new approach to managing the disease.
The approval was based on results from the phase 3 LUNA 3 clinical trial, which studied how well the medication worked and how safe it was in adults and adolescents with persistent or chronic ITP.
In this video clip from an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care®, Dr. David Kuter, lead investigator of the LUNA 3 study and a PDSA Medical Advisor, explains what makes rilzabrutinib different from existing ITP treatments. He also discusses how its safety and side-effect profile compares with other therapies commonly used to treat ITP.
