Abstract
Fourteen patients with polycythemia vera were treated with oral dibromomannitol (DBM), 250 mg or 100 mg daily, for up to 4 years and 1 month. Two of them had been treated with pipobroman before the treatment with DBM.
Complete remission was obtained in all of the 14 cases. The median duration of remission was 28 weeks. DBM proved effective in cases which had been refractory to pipobroman.
Severe but not fatal bone marrow supression was noted in 3 cases and moderate inpairment of liver function in 2.
A dose of 100 mg/day was considered appropirate for treatment of polycythemia vera. For discontinuation of the drug, normalization of leukocyte and platelet counts proved to be good indication. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the rise in serum iron levels.
These data suggest that DBM is effective for the treatment of polycythemia vera.
