MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES - A POPULATION-BASED STUDY ON TRANSFORMATION AND SURVIVAL

A retrospective analysis was done on 113 patients (median age 73 years ) with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), consecutively diagnosed at our center during a 10-year period, Patients with refractory anemia (RA) and refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS) had significantl y longer survival than patients with refractory anemia with excess bla sts (RAEB), chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) or refractory anemi a with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-T), Thirty-seven patients (33%) subsequently developed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), The pe rcentages of AML transformation for the subgroups were: RA: 26%, PARS: 14%, RAEB: 38%, CMML: 25% and RAEB-T: 69%, A total of 9 patients rece ived high-dose chemotherapy, 7 of them already at the time of MDS diag nosis, Six of the RAEB-T patients entered complete and two partial rem ission, The median age in the group of RAEB-T patients was significant ly lower (62 years) than in the other MDS subgroups, It seems that hig h-dose chemotherapy, at least in RAEB-T, may induce complete remission and improve survival time.