Autoimmune Cytopenias

At the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, a team of investigators from Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China, reported results of TARGET 020, an open-label phase 2 trial evaluating the benefit of first-line combination therapy with the calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus plus high-dose dexamethasone in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). The investigators note that retrospective studies and case reports have reported effectiveness of tacrolimus in ITP, and in murine studies it improved anti-platelet antibody-mediated thrombocytopenia.