The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new dosing schedule for Dacogen (decitabine) for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients giving them the option of receiving Dacogen without overnight hospital stays.
Patients on the new regimen receive 20 mg/m2 of Dacogen by intravenous infusion over one hour for five consecutive days, every four weeks. The new regimen decreases the infusion time compared to the current dosing schedule.
Under the current dosing schedule, patients receive 15 mg/m2…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) evaluation of Exjade (deferasirox) has concluded that the drug should not be prescribed to myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients with poor prognoses or high-risk disease due to the possibility of liver or kidney impairment and gastrointestinal bleeding. It now requires Novartis, which markets Exjade, to include a highlighted “black box warning” in the prescribing information cautioning physicians and patients about its potentially serious or fatal side effects.
Exjade is an iron chelating agent that…
Recombinant erythropoietin (r-EPO) without granulyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) may lead to longer survival times in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients according to an analysis conducted by Italian researchers.
Recombinant erythropoietin alpha is an erythroid stimulating agent that stimulates red blood cell production. It is beneficial for MDS patients with anemia (low red blood cell count) and can reduce transfusion-dependence and improve quality of life. Recombinant means that the erythropoietin originates from an external organism and not from the patients’ own bodies.…
The success of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients is determined by the stage of disease, rather than age or intensity of the pre-transplant regimen, according to a study published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Allogeneic stem cell transplantation, or allotransplantation, involves destroying patient bone marrow by chemotherapy or radiation and replacing it with healthy bone marrow from a matched donor. Although this process is the only cure for MDS, it does not guarantee…