Where in the body are myelodysplastic syndromes found?

Where in the body is MDS found? Myelodysplastic syndromes are a condition that occur in the bone marrow. And this is how I think about the bone marrow. The bone marrow is the factory that makes all the cells that wind up in our bloodstream. So it makes the red blood cells, those bring oxygen to our tissues and when those are low we're anemic. It makes the white blood cells, that's our immune system that fights infection, and it makes the platelets that help stop bleeding. So when a person has myelodysplastic syndromes, the factory's broken. It's not making those crucial red cells, white cells, and platelets that we need to survive. So MDS is now classified as a cancer off the bone marrow. And being a bone marrow and blood disease essentially, it really is all over the body Even though the source of the problem starts in the bone marrow. It affects you by lowering your blood counts, which makes you more prone to anemia related symptoms such as fatigue or even heart problems. You know in older patients it might make them dizzy, lightheaded, and cause all sorts of associated complications. It can lower your platelet count which makes you much more prone to bleeding. And it lowers your neutrophil count which is an important infection fighting cell so your immune system is very compromised. So MDS is a disorder off the bone marrow. And it is a cancer of the bone marrow. Where you, unlike acute myeloid leukemia where there are these rapidly proliferative cells in many patients, it is actually that your marrow is unable to make healthy cells. And this leads to complications related to having low blood counts in particular. So the key effects that this disease has are cytopenias, most remarkably anemia and most commonly anemia, which can cause a whole host of side effects in the body including fatigue, shortness of breath, heart issues, you know falls in elderly patients, all that are associated with an increased mortality. Other cytopenias include thrombocytopenia which is low platelet counts which make patients more prone to bleeding. This is less common than the anemia but also happens quite frequently. And the third important thing is neutropenia which is a type of immune fighting cell which can cause increased risk for bacterial infections and more specifically fatal bacterial infections. So this is quite a serious disease and even though historically there was some debate of whether this is a cancer or not it is a cancer. In addition to that it also has an increased risk of progression to acute myeloid leukemia and that's another factor to discuss and consult patients about.