New information on myelodysplastic syndrome---appeared in information from AABB

Less transfusion needed in blood disease
TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The drug lenalidomide ups red blood cell counts and reduces transfusions in people with myelodysplastic syndrome, say U.S. researchers.

Myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow disorder in which the blood cells form improperly and are eliminated from the body, produces severe, often refractory, anemia.

Researcher Alan List of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., led a multicenter team from the United States and Germany who were trying to find a way to increase the production of healthy red blood cells and lower or eliminate the number of blood transfusions people with myelodyspastic syndrome must receive.

They administered 10 mg of the drug lenalidomide either daily or for 21 days every four weeks to 148 patients with meylodysplastic syndrome and severe anemia. All treatment was discontinued after 24 weeks.

The team saw that 76 percent of the patients had a reduced need for transfusions, and 67 percent no longer required transfusions.

Positive responses occurred rapidly -- at a median of 4.6 weeks -- and the all the responses were still being sustained after a median of 104 weeks of follow-up. In addition, the mutation in the 5q31 chromosome that causes anemia in myelodysplastic syndrome was reversed in people who responded to the medication.

The results of the study are published in the October 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Yvette Bunch