Deferasirox Effect on Serum Ferritin in Iraq Patients with Hemoglobinopathies: A Single Center Experience

BACKGROUND: The introduction of deferasirox as an oral iron chelator for hemoglobinopathies has been hailed by many as an important milestone in the management of iron overload in the latter disorders. AIM: The objectives of the study were to evaluate the effectiveness of deferasirox in patients with hemoglobinopathies and to assess predictors of response. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 160 patients diagnosed with hemoglobinopathies were included retrospectively from Jin hematology and oncology center in Duhok city, Iraqi Kurdistan. The Jin center offers patients with hemoglobinopathies clinical advice, examination, follow-up, treatment, and blood transfusions. RESULTS: The median age of enrolled patients was 12 years (range 3–34 years), and included 86 females and 74 males. All patients were on deferasirox with a compliance rate of 77.5%. Furthermore, 32.3% were on concomitant deferoxamine at their last follow-up. After a median follow-up of 2.1 years (range 1–4 years), there was a mean reduction of serum ferritin level of −478.7 overall and −821.1 ng/ml in complaint patients (both being significant at p of 0.042 and 0.001, respectively). Univariate analysis revealed that older age at enrollment, and older age at starting therapy, and initial serum ferritin (>3000 ng/ml) were all significantly associated with more mean reduction in serum ferritin; while only the latter remained so by multivariate analysis (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Deferasirox was found to be effective in reducing the level of serum ferritin among this cohort of hemoglobinopathy patients, to a degree comparable to that reported in other studies worldwide. Furthermore, there were significant associations between the reduction of serum ferritin level and age, age at starting treatment, drug compliance, and the initial serum ferritin levels.