Impact on survival of different treatments for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)

✍ Scribed by Kathrin Nachtkamp; Andrea Kündgen; Corinna Strupp; Aristoteles Giagounidis; Guido Kobbe; Norbert Gattermann; Rainer Haas; Ulrich Germing

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 568 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0145-2126
• DOI: 10.1016/j.leukres.2008.12.019

✦ Synopsis

Therapies for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) often achieve hematological responses but their impact on overall survival has generally not been evaluated. The Duesseldorf MDS Registry allowed us to perform matched-pair analyses to assess a possible survival benefit of treatment with thalidomide, valproic acid, low-dose Ara-C, antithymocyte globulin (ATG), induction chemotherapy, or allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). For all treatment modalities, lengthening of survival was restricted to certain subgroups of patients. With the exception of allo-SCT, MDS treatment was generally palliative. Recently, epigenetic treatment with demethylating agents proved to be the first therapy that can significantly prolong survival in patients with higher-risk MDS.