BIK and essential thrombocythemia: In JAK2 V617F-positive ET patients we detected lower levels of pro-apoptotic BAX, BIK and BAD expression (median: 0.26, 0.45 and 1.86, respectively) in leukocytes compared to JAK2 V617F-negative ET patients (1.59, 2.96 and 11.10, respectively) (p = 0.0189, p = 0.0309 and p = 0.0055, respectively) (Figure 4A-C).