Clinical outcome after failure of hypomethylating therapy for myelodysplastic syndromes

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a very complex heterogeneous myeloid disorder that frequently affect older patients, are characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis in one or more lineages of the bone marrow. In the last decade there has been a revolution in our knowledge of these disorders followed by new effective therapies. In general, the patients are stratified into lower and higher risk groups. Of course, the therapeutic strategies are different since in the first cohort of patients the goal is to improve hemoglobin levels and the quality of life while in higher risk patients the goal is to increase the overall survival.