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Myelodysplastic Syndromes in Older Patients

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Abstract

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) represent typical diseases of the elderly. MDS cover a broad spectrum of clonal hematopoietic stem cell diseases characterized by a dysplastic hematopoiesis and cytopenias in the peripheral blood. Clinical manifestations of MDS are variable and range from mild symptoms related to anemia, thrombocytopenia or granulocytopenia to the transformation to acute myeloid leukemia. The availability of promising treatment options including disease-modifying agents and supportive therapy, imposes the need to develop strategies and algorithms for individualized risk assessment and treatment algorithms in elderly MDS-patients.

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Correspondence to Reinhard Stauder MD, MSc .

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Stauder, R. (2015). Myelodysplastic Syndromes in Older Patients. In: Wedding, U., Audisio, R. (eds) Management of Hematological Cancer in Older People. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2837-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2837-3_3

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