In the community, we have some unmet educational needs for the treatment of MDS. One big unmet need is what to do when patients fail hypomethylating agents. After failure the prognosis is poor with only four to six months’ survival, and we don't have any standard treatment options at that point. So, having treatment options for patients in the community where they could be treated as an outpatient and have a good quality of life is definitely an unmet need and, particularly for patients who may not have access to clinical trials. The other big unmet need is sometimes trying to determine when to cycle a patient HMA when they're actually progressing versus when they may have therapy-related cytopenias and trying to make sure we actually use each of the drugs to their full capability and then stop or change medications at the appropriate time. And so I think this is another important thing that needs to be addressed for MDS patients.
What are the current unmet educational needs for the treatment of MDS?
Clinical Pearls Podcasts published on March 30, 2020
Shyamala C. Navada, MD, MSCR
Assistant Professor
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Department of Medicine
Division of Hematology/Oncology
New York, New York
Assistant Professor
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Department of Medicine
Division of Hematology/Oncology
New York, New York
Last modified: March 6, 2020