Twice-Weekly High-Dose rHuEpo for the Treatment of Anemia in Patients with Low-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes

摘要

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of hemopoietic disorders with peripheral cytopenia due to ineffective hemopoiesis and a variable rate of transformation to overt acute myelogenous leukemia . However, patients with low-risk MDS (marrow blasts <10% or low and intermediate-1, Int-1, risk groups according to the International Prognostic Scoring System, IPSS) have a relatively longer survival with a lower rate of leukemic transformation ; anemia is the main cause of symptoms referred by low-risk MDS patients, with a frequent functional impairment that leads to diminished quality of life and survival . As a matter of fact, anemia occurs in up to 90% of patients at some point during the course of their disease, with >80% of patients requiring red blood cell (RBC) transfusion; moreover, transfusion requirement has recently been reported as a bad prognostic factor affecting overall survival in each WHO entity and it has been incorporated in a new WHO-based scoring system .