Prognosis
The outlook in MDS is poor, and most patients will progress within a few months to refractory acute myeloid leukemia The median survival varies from years to months, depending on type. Stem cell transplantation offers cure, with survival rates of 50% at 3 years, although older patients do badly.
Indicators of a good prognosis Younger age; normal or moderately reduced neutrophil or platelet counts; low blast counts in the bone marrow(<20%) and no blasts in the blood; no Auer rods; ringed sideroblasts; normal karyotypes of mixed karyotypes without complex chromosome abnormalities and in vitro marrow culture- non leukemic growth pattern.
Indicators of a poor prognosis Advanced age; Severe neutropenia or thrombocytopenia ; high blast count in the bone marrow (20-29%) or blasts in the blood; Auer rods; absence of ringed sideroblasts; abnormal localization or immature granulocyte precursors in bone marrow section all or mostly abnormal karyotypes or complex marrow chromosome abnormalities and in vitro bone emarrow culture-leukemic growth pattern.
Prognosis and karyotype Good: Normal, -Y, del(5q), del(20q)
Intermediate or variable: +8, other single or double anomalies
Poor; Complex (>3 chromosomal aberrations); chromosome 7 anomalies
The International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) is the most commonly used tool in MDS to predict long-term outcome.
Cytogenetic abnormalities can be detected by conventional cytogenetics, a FISH panel for MDS, or Virtual Karyotype.
Read more about this topic: Myelodysplastic Syndrome