According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and by the opinion of most doctors in the medical community, “Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are types of blood cancers that begin with an abnormal mutation (change) in a stem cell in the bone marrow. The change leads to an overproduction of any combination of white cells, red cells and platelets.”
You can read about them here: https://www.lls.org/myeloproliferative-neoplasms

Essential thrombocythemia-ET, along with Polycythemia Vera (PV), and Myelofibrosis are types of the blood conditions associated with MPN’s. So technically they are considered blood cancers.

I just had a long chat with my hematologist while in for my 6 month followup, having had AML 6 years ago. He knows I mentor for Mayo Connect and sometime we have discussions about different forms of blood cancers and conditions, how they mutate, and potential treatments. We talked about MPN’s this time. The take away is. yes, they are a type of chronic blood cancer by definition. Blood cancer refers to malignancies that affect the blood, bone marrow, and lymphatic system. In ET, a change has occurred where there is an overproduction of platelets.

However, as others in this support group have stated, as did my doctor…
”These are conditions where a person is more likely to die with the disease than from it.”

HU is a type of chemotherapy used to treat MPNs and other forms of cancers. There are also targeted drugs and immunosuppressive medications which may be used to treat ET as well.

Reading through previous posts it looks as though you have been taking HU since last summer. How has it been working for you? Have your platelet levels dropped to normal? Are you experiencing any side effects?