The manuscript describing the Revised IPSS (IPSS-R) for MDS is available now at Blood Online (June 27, 2012) IPSS-R Blood.  Under the aegis of the MDS Foundation, the International Working Group for Prognosis in MDS (IWG-PM) analyzed clinical features and outcome data from over 7000 patients and generated a method analyzing MDS patient prognosis more precisely than the initial IPSS.

Novel components of this prognostic system include: five rather than three cytogenetic prognostic subgroups with specific and new classifications of a number of less common cytogenetic subsets, splitting the low marrow blast percentage value, and depth of cytopenias. In addition to the major prognostic variables of marrow blasts, cytogenetics and peripheral cytopenias, additive features for survival include patient age, performance status, serum ferritin and LDH.

URLs for a web-based calculator tool to calculate the IPSS-R are located at the MDS Foundation website: https://www.mds-foundation.org/ipss-r-calculator or http://www.ipss-r.com. This IPSS-R should prove beneficial for predicting the clinical outcomes of untreated MDS patients and aiding design and analysis of clinical trials in this disease.