Hi Carol,
Yes, very important matter as Donna wrote. The problem is that there are so many choromosome aberrations and mutated genes in MDS patients so it will be very difficult to treat our individual MDS.
Slowly they discover changes like 5q- (sensitive to Revlimid) and the percentage of MDS cells expressing BCL2L10 (high % is
eventually correlated to Vidaza resistance)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3380582/.
Now only a little more than 50% respond to Vidaza (almost 50% are treated 6 months without response). More patients respond to combinations of drugs but it is mostly good luck if we get treatment that will give us a little longer life.
Kind regards
Birgitta-A
Responding to Thalidomide + Prednisone since June 2010