Characteristics of MDS patients seen at private practices differ significantly from those treated at university hospitals in Germany.

Background: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are mainly a disease of the elderly. Commonly, MDS patients are treated in an outpatient setting making hematological/oncological private practices (PP) an important backbone in the management of MDS patients.

Methods: To gain more insights into the characteristics of patients with MDS treated in hematological/oncological PP and to evaluate the daily diagnostic routines and classification systems used, we performed questionnaire-based analyses. Moreover, to investigate whether characteristics of MDS in PP differ from patients treated in specialized MDS centers in university hospitals (UH), we compared both cohorts of MDS patients.

Results: In total, 197 patients in PP and 165 patients in UH were enrolled. Patients in UH were significantly younger as compared to PP. Furthermore, in UH, a greater proportion of patients with international prognostic scoring system (IPSS) higher risk were found, whereas patients with IPSS lower risk were more frequent in PP. In addition, patients in UH had significantly lower hemoglobin levels and platelet counts compared to PP.

Conclusion: Our data show that PP and UH are approached by different MDS patient cohorts resulting in different diagnostic workups of MDS patients.