Eltrombopag in Children

Immune (idiopathic) thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a disease of low platelet count affects as many as 5 in 100,000 children each year.¹ Being a self-remitting illness patients usually don't need aggressive treatment. However up to 30 percent of children are diagnosed with chronic ITP (cITP) experiencing persistent disease at 1 year from beginning of symptomatology.^2,3,4 Patients with paediatric cITP are at a high risk of severe bleeding due to low platelet counts. Line of treatment for cITP in children include rituximab, high dose dexamethasone therapy, dapsone, multiple single agents, splenectomy and last but not the least thrombopoeitin receptor agonists like eltrombopag which is approved by U.S. FDA for use in children. Eltrombopag being an oral drug compared to other modalities has shown very promising results in paediatric patients with cITP, has attained a consistent platelet response for 6 of 8 weeks compared to placebo (39.7% vs 3.4% respectively, p < 0.001).