Myelodysplastic Syndromes — Coping with Ineffective Hematopoiesis

Abstract

One of the most challenging problems in hematology is the heterogeneous group of disorders that were formally defined as myelodysplastic syndromes by the French–American–British Cooperative Group in 1982. This set of disorders includes idiopathic conditions as well as the secondary or therapy-related forms that develop after exposure to alkylating agents, radiation, or both. Idiopathic myelodysplastic syndromes occur mainly in older persons: the incidence of these syndromes is about 5 per 100,000 persons per year in the general population, but it increases to 20 to 50 per 100,000 persons per year after 60 years of age. Approximately 15,000 new cases are . . .