What to Expect

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of diseases that affect the bone marrow and involve the immature stem cells from which all blood cells develop. MDS has a number of subtypes, and the likely course of the disease varies with the subtypes. Your doctor can explain which subtype of MDS you or the person you care for may have.

How Serious Is MDS?

The myelodysplastic syndromes vary in seriousness and degree of impact on a patient's life. Many things affect this, including:

• Patient's age
• Patient's general health — such as presence of other diseases
• Degree of progress of the MDS disease
• Types of intervention and treatment given
• Effectiveness of the treatment

For patients with the mildest type of MDS, such as mild refractory anemia, the disease may not require complex treatment. Activity levels may be at or near normal. Health status for such a patient may not change for a number of years.

For patients with a more serious case of MDS, there is a risk that the disease will progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). AML is a rapidly growing cancer of bone marrow cells. Therefore, it is very important that regular laboratory tests are done to check the health of the patient's blood and bone marrow.