The presence of severely low white blood cell counts is a significant prognostic factor for patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, according to the results of a recent retrospective study conducted in Spain.

The study investigators recommended that the severity of a patient’s low white blood cell counts should be considered as an additional prognostic factor in the International Prognostic Scoring System, which currently only considers the overall number of low blood cell counts.

Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) commonly experience low blood cell counts, which include low red blood cell…

Results of a retrospective analysis indicate that anemia drugs used to increase red blood cell counts are not associated with an increased risk of blood clots in myelodysplastic syndromes patients.

The drugs “appear to not increase the risk of thrombosis [blood clots] when used to treat anemia associated with myelodysplastic syndromes, though we cannot rule out a risk absolutely,” said Dr. Sheila Weiss Smith, the director of the Center for Drug Safety at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and one of the study authors.

However, Dr. Weiss Smith…

For blood cancer patients receiving a stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor, survival rates appear to be similar regardless of whether the stem cells were collected from the blood or from the bone marrow, according to results from a recent randomized Phase 3 trial.

However, transplants using stem cells from the blood were associated with a higher rate of chronic graft-versus-host disease, a common transplant-related complication.

Dr. Claudio Anasetti of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, presented the findings at the 2011 American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference…

Results of a retrospective analysis indicate that stem cell transplantation does not significantly improve survival for higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes patients compared to treatment with Vidaza or Dacogen.

As a result, the researchers who conducted the analysis conclude that treatment with Vidaza (azacitidine) or Dacogen (decitabine) is an “adequate alternative” for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients ineligible for stem cell transplanta­tion.  They also recommend that transplant-eligible patients be treated with Vidaza or Dacogen while waiting for a stem cell donor.

The findings were presented at the 2011 meeting of…

Preliminary findings from an ongoing Phase 1 trial show that a therapeutic vaccine combined with Revlimid generates a treatment response in some high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes patients.

Furthermore, among patients in the trial who have responded to the combination regimen, an immune system response also was observed.

This suggests that the treatment may be encouraging the body’s immune system to fight the myelodysplastic syndromes, which is what the researchers hoped to achieve with the treatment regimen.

The researchers’ findings were presented during a poster session at the 2011 meeting of the…