What is MDS?
Published: May 1, 2009 12:00 am
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of rare diseases, which affect the production of normally functioning blood cells in the bone marrow. In MDS, developing blood cells (“stem cells”) fail to properly mature, resulting in a lower than normal number of healthy blood cells.
MDS is characterized by overactive bone marrow that produces too many stem cells; however, many of these cells are defective (called “dysplastic”) and immature (called “blasts”). While dysplastic cells are abnormal in shape and unable to function properly, blasts die prematurely, due to unknown cancer-related mutations. Blasts also reproduce rapidly and accumulate in the bone marrow.
The severity of MDS is based on the percentage of blasts within the patient’s bone marrow. Patients with over 5 percent blasts are considered to have “high-risk” MDS, whereas patients with over 20 to 30 percent blasts are considered to have acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a form of cancer.
Related Articles:
- Stem Cell Transplants For Myelodysplastic Syndromes – Part 1: Introduction & Types Of Transplants
- Patient Stem Cells Remaining After Donor Transplant May Predict Relapse Of Myelodysplastic Syndromes
- Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Effective For The Elderly (EHA 2009)
- Complication, Acute Pulmonary Failure, Is Associated With Chemotherapy For MDS Patients
- The Public Is Encouraged To Comment On Potential Medicare Coverage Of Bone Marrow Transplants For Myelodysplastic Syndromes Patients
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