From the cancer.org website:
“Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are conditions that can occur when the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow become abnormal. This leads to low numbers of one or more types of blood cells. MDS is considered a type of cancer.”
For example, my red blood cells are primarily affected by MDS. My hematology doctor once told me to think of my MDS red blood cells as “large and funny looking”, a description that stuck with me. You can see that in numbers on a CBC (Complete Blood Count) when the red blood cell line is affected. The MCV (Mean Corpuscular Volume, which is the size of the red blood cell) will keep increasing past normal to show the red blood cells growing abnormally bigger and bigger, leading to lower hemoglobin and less oxygen throughout the body. I believe the abnormal growth traits of these blood cells are why they refer to it as a blood cancer.
-Stacey
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