Emerging Technical and Precision Medicine Approaches for Higher Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of myeloid neoplasms that range from indolent to very aggressive and are characterized by clonal hematopoiesis and impaired maturation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and progenitor cells, i.e. the HSCs are not maturing properly into normal healthy red cells, white cells and platelets. The hallmark of MDS is the dysregulated hematopoietic differentiation resulting in impaired differentiation, morphological dysplasia, and cytopenia.1 Patients commonly present with some degree of symptomatic anemia, bleeding, easy bruising, infections, and about a third of patients will progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML).