Dr. David Steensma on Myelodysplastic Syndrome

David P. Steensma, MD, Senior Physician, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana Farber Cancer Institute discusses myelodysplastic syndromes.

Myelodysplastic syndromes are increasingly recognized, with 30,000-35,000 new cases per year in the United States. These are both marrow failure syndromes and bone marrow cancers, as the majority of patients have either a chromosome abnormality or systemic genetic mutation or both, explains Steensma. There is a risk that myelodysplastic syndromes will progress to acute leukemia.

Individualized therapy is currently based on risk stratification and clinical pathological disease features, said Steensma. However, in the future molecular genetic profiling will play an increasing role.