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Experimental
Drug (Revlimid) Stuns Cancer Doctors
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here for more information 
May
19, 2004 - FDA approves Pharmion's Vidaza™
(azacitidine
for injectable suspension) for the
Treatment of Myelodysplastic
Syndromes (MDS)
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First
drug approved for the treatment of MDS should be commercially
available within several weeks. For more information, see
News Release at Pharmion's website at www.pharmion.com |
“In
20 years of dealing with patients with myelodysplasia, we have
never had anything with this magnitude of benefit for individuals
that can cause a remission, particularly with just a pill.”
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Alan
F. List, MD
Director, Hematologic Malignancies Program
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
Tampa, FL |
Click
here for full story and video on Ivanhoe Broadcast News
By a 10-5 Vote, ODAC Recommends Revlimid® as
Oral Targeted
Therapy for Low to Intermediate-1-Risk MDS Patients With
Deletion 5q Chromosomal Abnormality
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here for more information
Two
new articles from the New England Journal of Medicine, February
10, 2005
MDS:
Coping with Ineffective Hematopoiesis
Efficacy
of Lenalidomide in Myelodysplastic Syndromes
Emerging
Treatment Options for Adult MDS:
A Clinical Perspective
The
incidence of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is increasing in
tandem with our aging population. In turn, the disease burden
on the patient and health care system is increasing exponentially.
New treatment options must be assessed with this in mind.
Click
here for full text
"MDS:
Coping with
Ineffective Hematopoiesis"
From the New England Journal of Medicine, February
10, 2005
One of the most challenging problems
in hematology
is the heterogeneous group of disorders
that were formally defined as myelodysplastic syndromes
by the French–American–British Cooperative
Group in 1982. This set of disorders includes
idiopathic conditions as well as the secondary or
therapy-related forms that develop after exposure
to alkylating agents, radiation, or both. Idiopathic
myelodysplastic syndromes occur mainly in older
persons: the incidence of these syndromes is about
5 per 100,000 persons per year in the general population,
but it increases to 20 to 50 per 100,000 persons
per year after 60 years of age.
See article
Response
to TRISENOX® Therapy in MDS Patients
Responses Seen in High-Risk and Low-Risk Patients
In
Europe
Preliminary
data from a phase II clinical trial of TRISENOX® (arsenic trioxide)
injection in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) were
presented at the 9th Congress of the European Hematology Association
(EHA), held in Geneva, Switzerland. The multicenter European study,
led by Norbert Vey, MD, of Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille,
France, was conducted in high-risk and low-risk MDS patients; the
study findings showed that arsenic trioxide, administered as a single-agent,
produced a hematologic response in 27% of study participants.
See
article
What
Causes MDS?
David
T. Bowen, MD
University of Dundee Medical School
Dundee, Scotland
Introduction
Amongst the most frequent questions asked by patients soon after
the diagnosis of MDS are:
- “Why
me?”
- “What
causes MDS?”
- “Could
I have done anything different to avoid getting MDS?” and
“Can my children get it?”
The
simple answer to these questions is that for the vast majority of
patients, we have few clues as to the cause of their MDS.
The
study of the causes of these diseases is proving difficult for the
following reasons:
-
MDS is more than one disease
-
Few comprehensive patient registries exist to accurately determine
who gets the different subtypes of MDS (e.g. age/sex distribution)
-
Determining the length of time to develop MDS is difficult
See
article
- TRISENOX®
(ARSENIC TRIOXIDE): PROMISING NEW OPTION FOR MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES
Alan F. List, MD
Winter 2003 Newsletter
- APOPTOSIS
IN MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES: A MULTIPLICITY OF MOLECULAR MODUS
OPERANDI
Suneel D. Mundle, Ph.D
Winter 2003 Newsletter
- MIA
HAMM: LEADING THE CHARGE
- SIXTH
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES: AN OVERVIEW
STOCKHOLM, JUNE 14-17, 2001
Eva Hellstrom-Lindberg, MD, PhD
Fall 2001 Newsletter
- TREATMENT
OF MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES
Elihu H. Estey, MD
Spring 2001 Newsletter
- APPROACHES
TO MANAGEMENT OF PATIENTS WITH MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES: AN OVERVIEW
John M. Bennett, MD
Fall 2000 Newsletter
- THE
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) CLASSIFICATION OF ACUTE LEUKEMIAS
AND MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES
John M. Bennett, MD
Spring 2000 Newsletter
- MDS
RESEARCH: WHERE TO NEXT?
Professor G.J. Mufti
Fall 1999 Newsletter
- THE
DISEASES COLLECTIVELY KNOWN AS MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES (MDS)
ARE DIFFICULT TO TREAT
Pierre Fenaux, MD, PhD
Spring 1999 Newsletter
- IT
HAS BEEN MORE THAN THREE YEARS SINCE MY FATHER, AT THE AGE OF
61, DIED OF CHEMOTHERAPY-INDUCED INFECTIOUS COMPLICATIONS FOR
THE TREATMENT OF ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA.
Jody Simon, MS, RPh
Winter 1999 Newsletter
- THE
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON MYELODYS-PLASTIC SYNDROMES,
WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE HISTORIC CITY OF BARCELONA IN APRIL 1997,
WAS AN OVERWHELMING SUCCESS.
Peter Greenberg, MD
Fall 1998 Newsletter
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