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HCT Decisions in Elderly Patients with MDS

Bone Marrow Transplant; ePub 2016 Mar 21; El-Jawahari, et al

Baseline patient-reported quality of life (QOL) has little influence on the decision to undergo reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) for older patients with advanced myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). This according to a study of 127 patients with MDS aged 60 to 75 years. Researchers found:

• After a mean follow-up of 16 months, 35% of patients had undergone RIC HCT.

• In multivariable analysis, age (HR=0.87 per year) and higher IPSS score (intermediate-2/high; HR=2.29) were significantly predictive of receipt of RIC HCT.

• Neither global QOL score nor any QOL subscales were predictive.

Citation: El-Jawahari A, Kim HT, Steensma DP, et al. Does quality of life impact the decision to pursue stem cell transplantation for elderly patients with advanced MDS? [Published online ahead of print March 21, 2016]. Bone Marrow Transplant. doi:10.1038/bmt.2016.40.