Treatment of Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Myelodysplastic syndromes: the challenge of developing clinical guidelines and supportive care strategies for a rare disease

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) represent a group of clonal myeloid malignancies with variability in clinical presentation and disease trajectory, as well as prognosis and treatment recommendations (Kurtin & Demakos, 2010). MDS is considered to be a rare disease that is most common in adults older than age 70. The disease is characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, progressive bone marrow failure, and a variable risk of leukemic transformation thought to result from complex interactions between the malignant clone and the bone marrow microenvironment (Kurtin, 2011). This supplement is intended to provide the oncology clinician with an overview of MDS and provide tools for the clinical management and support of patients with MDS.

Nuclear phospholipase C β1 signaling, epigenetics and treatments in MDS

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), clonal hematopoietic stem-cell disorders mainly affecting older adult patients, show ineffective hematopoiesis in one or more of the lineages of the bone marrow. Most MDS are characterized by anemia, and a number of cases progresses to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Indeed, the molecular mechanisms underlying the MDS evolution to AML are still unclear, even though the nuclear signaling elicited by PI-PLCβ1 has been demonstrated to play an important role in the control of the balance between cell cycle progression and apoptosis in MDS cells. Here we review both the role of epigenetic therapy on PI-PLCβ1 promoter and the changes in PI-PLCβ1 expression in MDS patients treated for anemia.