Abstract: Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of interferon alpha(IFN-α) in the treatment of polycythemia vera(PV) patients with JAK2V617F mutation. Methods 21 patients of PV with JAK2V617F mutation were treated with IFN-α, and 18 patients were treated with hydroxyurea(HU) as a control. The changes of blood cell counts and spleen sizes were observed. The expression levels of JAK2V617F were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. The hematologic remission rate and molecular remission rate were compared between two groups. Results The overall hematologic remission rate(complete and partial remission) of IFN-α group was 85.71%, which was significantly higher than that of HU group(55.56%). The overall molecular remission rate(complete and partial remission) of IFN-α group was 71.43%, and HU group was 5.56%, the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion Compared with HU, IFN-α not only can make PV patients get a higher hematologic remisson rate, but also can reduce the load of JAK2V617F to reach molecular remisson.

Key words: polycythemia vera, JAK2V617F, interferon alpha