Updates on managing Myleodysplastic Syndromes

Posted on March 28, 2008 by David Austin

This is a very scientific entry at Cancer Consultants.com.  But if you want to research Myleodysplastic Syndromes, then here is some information.

Here's the introduction:

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a collection of clonally-derived hematopoietic disorders typified by peripheral blood cytopenias, transfusion-dependency, and in a subset of patients, increased likelihood of transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML).1,2 This past decade has brought increased attention to MDS with the approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of three MDS therapies, and a more complete understanding of these diseases on a molecular level. This year at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2007 annual meeting, presentations focused on the implications and management of MDS- and treatment-related cytopenias; results of clinical trials of hypomethylating agents, including the first prospectively-acquired survival data; and extension of the potential applicability of immunomodulatory drugs.


Source:  CancerConsultants.com

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Cheek Swabs to Find Bone Marrow donors

Posted on March 14, 2008 by David Austin

If you make it easy then maybe people will be more likely to step up and help.  Looks like that strategy worked here.  Cheek swabs to find donors is a much less invasive method of finding a bone marrow match than a blood draw.

A B.C. pilot project using free, Web mail-order cheek swab kits to recruit young and ethnically diverse bone marrow stem cell donors, is being deemed such a whopping success that it's now being rolled out across the country.

Ethnic groups are being targeted because 85 per cent of would-be donors in the bone marrow registry are Caucasian, which makes it highly difficult to find matches for ethnic patients. Younger donors are sought because they are the healthiest.

The national program follows a Canadian Blood Services (CBS) project over the past four months in B.C., during which cheek swab kits were mailed to those between the ages of 17 and 50 after they registered for them online.

The kits contain long sticks resembling Q-tips to scrape skin cells from the inside of cheeks. The kit is sent back to CBS in Ottawa; the individual's DNA is then extracted, typed and entered in a database.

Before the cheek swab kits were introduced, would-be donors had to go to a laboratory for a blood draw, a far more expensive, inconvenient process. Now the cheek swab kits will largely replace laboratory blood collection for DNA typing.

Source:  Canada.com

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