The MDS Beacon™

A promising experimental method for treating advanced leukemia may point the way to important new treatment options for myelodysplastic syndromes.

“It is possible that this technology could ultimately be of use in myelodysplastic syndromes,” said Dr. David Steensma, a myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) specialist from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston who was not involved in the study investigating the leukemia treatment.  “The fundamental problem – that of immune tolerance of abnormal cells … – is the same in all cancers, including MDS.”

He…

The results of a recent analysis suggest that reducing the intensity of preparative treatment prior to stem cell transplantation does not affect outcomes in myelodysplastic syndromes patients.

Previous studies have shown that reducing the intensity improves the safety of the stem cell transplant procedure, but some studies suggest that the reduced-intensity treatment also decreases the efficacy.

In this study, response duration and survival were similar between patients receiving the reduced-intensity treatment and those receiving the conventional intensity.

The results were…

The American Society of Hematology annual meeting was held earlier this month in Orlando.  The myelodysplastic syndromes portion of the conference concluded with a poster session on the third evening and a session of talks in the morning of the fourth and final day of the meeting.

Day 3 Poster Session

In the evening, results from a number of clinical trials for current MDS treatments as well as new drugs under development were presented during a poster session.

One study…

This year’s American Society of Hematology meeting was held last week in Orlando.  The third day of the conference was filled with presentations about myelodysplastic syndromes.  There were talks throughout the day and a poster session in the evening.  This article will cover the talks from the day, and another article will cover the highlights from the poster session.

The talks began in the morning with a session about molecular profiling as a tool for the diagnosis and prognosis of…