Does Blood Transfusion Promote Progression to AML?
Sunday, December 7, 2008, 6:00 PM-8:00 PM Hall A (Moscone Center) Poster Board II-779 Lap Shu Alan Chan1*, Rena Buckstein, MD2, Marciano D. Reis, MD3, Alden Chesney II, MD3*, Adam Lam3*, Matthew C Cheung, MD3*, Eugenia Piliotis, MD3*, Lilly Chunhong Gu, MD, PhD1* and Richard A. Wells, MD, DPhil31Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada 2Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada 3Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada Introduction: The biology of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is poorly understood, and treatment options are limited. Thus, most MDS patients require chronic red blood cell transfusion, and many develop secondary iron overload. Although the pathophysiological consequences of iron overload to the heart, liver, and endocrine organs have been well characterized, its effects on haematopoiesis have not been studied. However, it has been observed that chelation therapy in iron-overloaded MDS patients may result in reduction of transfusion requirements, an
