MDS News
Here are all the latest news articles written by The Beacon’s staff.
For news articles about treatments commonly given to MDS patients, click on these links:
erythropoietin, cytarabine, Dacogen, Desferal, Exjade, Revlimid, and Vidaza.
For news articles about potential new MDS treatments, click on these links:
Clolar, Estybon, sapacitabine, and Telintra.
For news articles about specific MDS-related topics, click on these links:
anemia, chromosomal abnormalities, deletion 5q (“del-5q”), iron chelation, prognosis, and stem cell transplants.
A retrospective analysis of clinical trials involving the use of Revlimid in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes patients shows that that the rate of cancer for Revlimid-treated MDS patients is similar to the rate of cancer in the general public.
The findings were presented at the 2011 American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting held in December.
The results need to be considered carefully, however, because the analysis compares the rate of second cancers among Revlimid-treated MDS patients in clinical trials with the rate of cancer in the general public.
A more relevant…
Using tobacco products has a negative impact on the prognosis of patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, according to a recent U. S. study. The study investigators did not observe this impact in higher-risk patients.
Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that tobacco use may influence the biology of the disease and suggested that lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients may improve their outcomes if they discontinue any tobacco use.
The study results were presented during a poster session at the 2011 American Society of Hematology meeting last month.
Previous studies…
Researchers from the United States and Spain recently found that lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes patients may benefit from early treatment with a certain kind of stem cell transplant.
Specifically, the patients benefited from donor stem cell transplants without T-cells, a type of white blood cell.
Over 60 percent of patients experienced survival times greater than five years, and the rate of graft-versus-host disease, a common transplant-related complication, was low.
According to the researchers, these findings support the use of transplantation without T-cells in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients.
The findings were…
A combination of the drugs Velcade and belinostat may be active in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, according to results of a small Phase 1 clinical trial.
These results were presented during a poster session at the 2011 American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting last month.
Velcade (bortezomib) is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma.
Belinostat (PXD 101), which is being developed jointly by the American company Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SPPI) and the Danish company TopoTarget, belongs…
Results of a recent, small French study indicate that it may be possible for myelodysplastic syndromes patients to receive Vidaza treatment at home instead of at a doctor’s office or hospital.
The findings were presented at the 2011 American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in San Diego last month.
In France, chemotherapy is typically administered in a hospital. However, the French National Health Service allows home administration of some chemotherapy treatments after the first treatment cycle.
A group of French researchers, therefore, sought to investigate if Vidaza (azacitidine) could…