Prognostic Significance Of Bone Marrow Cellularity In The Outcome Of Patients With Myelodysplastic Syndromes Treated With Azacyitidine: A Retrospective Analysis From The Hellenic Mds Study Group

Introduction: Clinical trials in patients with high risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) have shown that these patients benefit from the available hypomethylating agents 5-azacytidine and decitabine. The majority of these patients display hypercellular bone marrow, but a small proportion despite the excess of blasts, exhibit marrow hypocellularity (<30% cellularity). Data are limited for the efficacy and safety of treatment with hypomethylating agents in this patient subgroup. In the present study we examined the effect of bone marrow cellularity in the overall survival in patients with MDS treated with azacitidine.