Understanding Immune Thrombocytopenia: Looking Out of the Box

Alexandra Schifferli; Franco Cavalli; Bertrand Godeau; Howard A Liebman; Mike Recher; Paul Imbach; Thomas Kühne

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.613192

Understanding Immune Thrombocytopenia: Looking Out of the Box

Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Jun 24:8:613192. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.613192. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Alexandra Schifferli^{1

2}, Franco Cavalli³, Bertrand Godeau⁴, Howard A Liebman⁵, Mike Recher⁶, Paul Imbach², Thomas Kühne^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology/Oncology, University Children's Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
² Intercontinental Cooperative Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) Study Group, Basel, Switzerland.
³ Lymphoma Unit, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland.
⁴ Centre de Référence des Cytopénies Auto-Immunes de l'Adulte, Service de Médecine Interne, CHU Henri Mondor, AP-HP, Université Paris-Est Créteil, Créteil, France.
⁵ Jane Anne Nohl Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁶ Medical Outpatient Clinic and Immunodeficiency Laboratory, Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital and University Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract

The pathogenesis of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is increasingly being elucidated, and its etiology is becoming more frequently identified, leading to a diagnostic shift from primary to secondary ITP. The overlap between autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, and cancer is evident, implying more interdisciplinarity in daily care. This mini-review is based on an expert meeting on ITP organized by the Intercontinental Cooperative ITP Study Group and presents the challenges of hematologists in understanding and investigating "out of the box" concepts associated with ITP.

Keywords: ITP syndrome; autoimmunity; cancer; immune thrombocytopenia; immunodeficiency; overlap syndromes; secondary ITP.

Publication types

Review