What is MDS?

MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes) is a group of disorders in which your blood-forming stem cells stem cells: Cells in the body that develop into other cells. There are two main sources of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells come from human embryos and are used in medical research. Adult stem cells in the body repair and maintain the organ or tissue in which they are found. Blood-forming (hemapoietic) stem… are defective and fail to make healthy, mature blood cells. Doctors consider MDS to be a slow growing form of blood and bone marrow bone marrow: The soft, spongy tissue inside most bones. Blood cells are formed in the bone marrow. cancer. With MDS, patients have low blood counts for at least one blood cell type and blood cells look abnormal under a microscope. Doctors must do a bone marrow biopsy bone marrow biopsy: A medical procedure to remove a small piece of solid bone marrow using a needle that goes into the marrow of the hip bone. The solid bone marrow is examined for cell abnormalities, the number of different cells and checked for scarring of the bone marrow. to be certain of the diagnosis. Symptoms and the course of MDS vary for each patient depending on which blood cells are affected.