Myelodysplastic Syndromes (mds) are a collection of major and minor diseases which adversely affect blood and bone marrow.

Some of these diseases are curable and could be treated with proper medication whereas some may go rampant developing eventually into md Leukemia or acute myelogenous Leukemia.

The victims of mds

Innumerable people are affected by this disease every year and United States alone displays a staggering rise at an alarming rate. Almost fifteen thousands victims of mds have been reported in US and most of the cases have been diagnosed as mds Leukemia where the patient suffers from bone marrow malfunction.

What happens in mds?

Normal bone marrow produces blood cells in the body and mainly Erythrocytes, Thrombocytes and Leukocytes are produced whereas mds Leukemia patients suffer from severe dysfunction of blood and bone marrow wherein bone marrow abdicates its normal function of producing blood cells in a controlled and organizes way.

It assumes an eccentric pattern of cell production and release huge number of abnormal cells in the body. These immature cells or blasts do not mature into full fledged healthy blood cells but on the contrary prevents normal blood cells from functioning.

This abnormally metamorphosed bone marrow is called de novo mds and the reason for this change in chemical composition is still unknown.

Is mds necessarily Leukemia?

The term mds and Leukemia are used interchangeably many times however it needs to be clarified that there is a subtle difference between the two.

Every mds is not Leukemia but Leukemia is a definite kind of mds indeed. Mds is a difficult to diagnose disease and it is often hard to differentiate mds from other blood diseases. Identification of the correct type of mds is often a challenge for the doctors and since it is a collective group of diseases some patients are known to live for years with a particular kind of MDS whereas others have perished with a different kind of mds which was far more virulent and fierce.

Accurate prognosis is a problem and it becomes very difficult to ascertain the chances of survival correctly.

Types of mds

British, American and French researchers have perfected a system of classification of mds into different types. This FAB system of classification is very successful and scientific which uses various disease factors and blast percentage in bone marrow for this purpose. The degree of blast is measured and anything less then 5% is rated as “not normal”. The level of being not normal is then accurately calculated by finding out the deviation of blast from the normal benchmark.

When there is a heavy accumulation of Leukocytes along with a blast percentage of almost near about 20%, patient is diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic Leukemia (cmml). Condition of 5% less blast is medically diagnosed as Refractory Anemia. RA is not at all a fatal pathological condition whereas Leukemia is actually the same disorder but to a much higher extent and as a result the manifestation is much more severe.

International Prognostic Scoring System (ipss) is a tried and tested fool proof method adapted by physicians to make accurate prognosis. It revolves around figuring out the correct percentage of blast cells in bone marrow.

Support and assistance

MD Anderson Leukemia centre located in Houston, Texas is doing a wonderful job in providing online 24X7 supports through its portals to cancer patients. All over the world research is consistently carried on to eradicate this malicious degenerating disease. Does future holds a Leukemia free world for our next generation, time alone can tell.