polycythemia vera

How are you currently being treated?

Um, I have PV, which high hematocrit, with high platelets.

So, uh, that has to be looked after at the same time actually.

Um, and so I do go, uh, regu- well, I say I go regularly.

Okay.

You know, it just depends where, where I am and-

What should general practitioners know about PV that they may not be aware of?

I think, well, I think firstly, it, as I, as you and I said before we-

[gentle serene music] Marina Kremenskya, and I'm at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

[gentle serene music] Polycythemia vera is a chronic, uh, blood cancer, um, that is pretty rare, though we see a lot of it here at Mount Sinai.

Um, and what happens with PV, as we call it, is that, um, there is, uh, increased abnormal production of red blood cells.

So there is too many red blood cells that are being produced, and that is inappropriate.

Um, and the complication of that is that, um, patients are at higher risk for blood clots.

So this is one of the major problems with PV.

In addition, um, it, it's, it's one of the chronic my- myeloproliferative neoplasms.

So what can happen is that patients can progress to one of the more aggressive forms of MPNs, such as myelofibrosis or acute leukemia.