Pediatric Myelodysplastic Syndrome: Experience from a Single Center

Pediatric myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a group of heterogeneous clonal disorder with lesser frequency compared to adults. Additionally, there is much rare data in pediatric age group in relation to presentational findings and treatment.

The clinical and laboratory data, in addition to therapeutic interventions and outcomes of 47 patients in a single centre who were diagnosed between January 2001-May 2014 were summarized.

Median age of the study group was 2.8 years (0.1-16.8). The most common complaints at presentation included fever (27%), fatigue (17%), bleeding (15%), abdominal distention (13%), in addition to other rare presentational complaints including pallor, rash, vomiting, irritability, jaundice, stridor, abdominal pain and easy bruising. The underlying disorder was established as: neurofibromatosis in 5, Down syndrome in 3, secondary to prior chemotherapy in 2 (ALL and PNET), Fanconi anemia in 1, Jacobsen syndrome in 1, Klinefelter in 1. Final diagnosis was MDS in 22, JMML in 19, hypoplastic MDS in 4 and chemotherapy related MDS in 2. Median Hb, WBC, thrombocyte counts at presentation were 8.7 g/dl (4.1-12.7), 10.3x10⁹/L (1.3-117) and 55x10⁹/L (4-1515), respectively. Of the mutations studied related to MDS in 22 of the patients, k-ras positivity was the most common (23%). The most common cytogenetic abnormality was chromosome 7 related abnormalities (25%). Of the patients, 21 (45%) are alive and of these alive patients 62% are alive subsequent to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

The patients with pediatric MDS may present with various complaints and they may have underlying genetic diseases causing propensity for MDS. The survival is better among patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.