Purpose: Myelodysplastic syndromes Myelodysplastic syndromes: (my-eh-lo-diss-PLASS-tik SIN-dromez) A group of disorders where the bone marrow does not work well, and the bone marrow cells fail to make enough healthy blood cells. Myelo refers to the bone marrow. Dysplastic means abnormal growth or development. People with MDS have low blood cell count for at… (MDS) are classified as de novo de novo: (di-NO-vo) Brand new, referring to the first time something occurs. MDS that is untreated or that has no known cause is called de novo MDS. and therapy-related (tMDS). We evaluated associations between MDS risk factors separately for de novo and tMDS.
Methods: The study population included 346 de novo MDS cases, 37 tMDS cases and 682 population controls frequency matched by age and sex. Polytomous logistic regression was performed to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Results: After adjustment, former smoking status (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.10-1.93), personal history of autoimmune disease autoimmune disease: Any condition that happens when the immune system attacks the body's own normal tissues by mistake. (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 0.99-1.82) and exposure to benzene benzene: A chemical that is widely used by the chemical industry in the United States to make plastics, resins, nylon and synthetic fibers. Benzene is found in tobacco smoke, vehicle emissions, and gasoline fumes. Exposure to benzene may increase the risk of developing a bone marrow failure disease. Benzene… (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.00-2.19) were associated with de novo MDS. Risk estimates for the associations between smoking, autoimmune disease, and benzene exposure were similar in magnitude but non-significant in tMDS cases. Among individuals with a previous diagnosis of cancer, de novo MDS cases and controls were more likely to have had a previous solid tumor, while tMDS cases more commonly had a previous hematologic malignancy.
Conclusions: We observed similar associations between smoking, history of autoimmune disease and benzene exposure in de novo and tMDS although estimates for tMDS were imprecise due to small sample sizes. Future analyses with larger sample sizes will be required to confirm whether environmental factors influence risk of tMDS.