Treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes: practical tools for effective management.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of myeloid malignancies with variability in clinical presentation, disease trajectory, treatment goals, and expected outcomes. The treatment of patients with MDS, therefore, often differs from patient to patient. Tools are needed to aid effective communication with patients, their caregivers, and their dedicated team of healthcare professionals.

Alemtuzumab with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide reduces chronic graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acquired aplastic anemia.

We evaluated a novel alemtuzumab-based conditioning regimen in HSCT for acquired severe aplastic anemia (SAA). In a multicenter retrospective study, 50 patients received transplants from matched sibling donors (MSD; n = 21) and unrelated donors (UD; n = 29), using fludarabine 30 mg/m² for 4 days, cyclophosphamide 300 mg/m² for 4 days, and alemtuzumab median total dose of 60 mg (range:40-100 mg). Median age was 35 years (range 8-62).

Optimization of a procedure used to measure aerosol characteristics of nebulized solutions using a cooled next generation impactor.

Background: Cooling the Next Generation Impactor (NGI) is recommended to minimize evaporation due to heat transfer from impactor to aerosols when evaluating nebulized solutions. This methodology increases testing time for serial testing procedures. We hypothesize that after an initial prolonged cooling time, experiments could be repeated after shorter recooling times without sacrificing accuracy.

IL-17-producing CD4(+) T cells, pro-inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis are increased in low risk myelodysplastic syndrome.

Immunological responses are increasingly recognised as being important in the initiation and progression of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Indeed, autoimmune diseases commonly occur in association with MDS, particularly in subtypes with a low risk of leukaemic transformation. This study showed for the first time that the numbers of CD3(+) CD4(+) IL-17 producing T cells (Th17) were markedly increased in low risk MDS compared with high risk MDS (P < 0.

Prevalence and prognostic significance of allelic imbalance by single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis in low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes.

Low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with normal cytogenetics accounts for approximately 50% of MDS patients. There are no pathognomonic markers in these cases and the diagnosis rests on cytomorphologic abnormalities in bone marrow and/or peripheral blood. Affymetrix high-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping microarrays allow detection of cytogenetically cryptic genomic aberrations.

CD4+CD25high Foxp3+ regulatory T cells in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a central role in maintaining immune tolerance. A reduction in the function of Tregs is a key feature of autoimmune diseases, whereas their expansion in malignant diseases leads to the suppression of host antitumor responses. We analyzed the absolute number of CD4+ and CD8(+) Tregs in the peripheral blood of 52 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and show a significant correlation between increased number of CD4+ Tregs and MDS subgroups with 5% or more bone marrow blasts (P < .