MDS: Is it cancer, pre-cancer or non-of the above
I found this interesting blog post on Myelodysplastic Syndromes. It discusses whether MDS will always lead to cancer. It has a lot of good information.
Primary MDS represents a family of diseases, most prevalent in those over the age of 50 to 60, that involve unwanted variations in the function of the bone marrow in its role as the storehouse and processing center of the stem cells that ultimately turn into blood cells. These MD syndromes are called primary because they do not develop after a patients has been treated aggressively for cancer by radiation or chemotherapy which are known to cause MDS as a secondary, or side-effect. Nor do primary MDS patients have a known long-term exposure to hematologically carcinogenic chemicals like benzene, which can bring on MDS and leukemia.
Source: http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/dbio/2008/01/the-myelodyspla.html
