A Case of Secondary Leukemia Subsequent to Myelodysplastic Syndromes Successfully Treated with Azacitidine

Abstract

Elderly patients with secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) following myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are often medically unfit for or resistant to chemotherapy, and their prognosis is dismal. In the present paper, we reported a case of secondary leukemia following MDS in an 80-year-old male patient who was deemed unfit for chemotherapy owing to his old age and poor physical condition. Despite a high tumor burden, treatment with AZA exerted a remarkable response, leading to an immediate cytoreduction in our case. Our results suggest that AZA can be an attractive therapeutic option for elderly MDS or AML patients, offering adequate efficacy and high tolerability.

Silencing HO-1 sensitizes SKM-1 cells to apoptosis induced by low concentration 5-azacytidine through enhancing p16 demethylation

“…Besides, AZA is able to regulate cell differentiation and proliferation (19). AZA was approved by FDA to treat all MDS subtypes in 2004, and by using them Kumode et al successfully treated MDS-derived AML (20). Despite the significantly elevated overall survival rates of medium-risk II and high-risk MDS patients, AZA usually gives unsatisfactory complete remission rates.…”