What Causes Myelodysplastic Neoplasms (MDS)?
Part of what makes MDS difficult to detect and diagnose is that the disease does not have a single, clear-cut cause. It isn’t inherited or triggered by an identifiable event. It develops gradually as blood stem cells accumulate genetic mutations.
When blood stem cells mutate, the changes are duplicated repeatedly. These cloned abnormal cells begin to crowd out healthy blood cells, which impairs the bone marrow’s ability to function. Cloning is what leads to low blood counts that eventually develop into MDS.
Who is at Risk of Getting MDS?
There is no single predictor for MDS, but some factors are associated with higher risk.
Risks can increase for:
- Patients over 60
- Patients who have received prior cancer treatment
- Patients with a genetic change in blood stem cells, called a clonal hematopoiesis (CH)
- People exposed to harmful chemicals like benzene or pesticides
- People who smoke
How Can I Lower My Risk of Developing MDS?
Beyond starting healthy habits, many risk factors for MDS are not under your control. You can’t change your age or genetics, and if you had cancer previously, you needed life–saving treatments.
Siteman does offer one proactive option through monitoring in our Clonal Hematopoiesis Clinic.
The power of healthy living is hard to overestimate. A large percentage of cancers and many other chronic diseases can be prevented by things like eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, keeping weight in check, and getting important screening tests.
The best part? These are things under your control. Take some simple steps to improve your health, and help your family do the same.
Explore Our 8IGHT WAYS® Resources
Watch VideoThe Clonal Hematopoiesis (CH) Clinic at Siteman
WashU Medicine experts in blood cancers like MDS and AML started the Clonal Hematopoiesis (CH) Clinic at Siteman Cancer Center as a proactive way to support patients with a CH diagnosis before they develop cancer. There is a strong link between mutations in blood stem cells and people who later develop blood cancer like MDS.
While CH doesn’t always lead to cancer — risk of progression is under 4% — close monitoring gives physicians the ability to act early if that changes.
What the CH Clinic offers patients
At the CH Clinic, our team creates a personalized monitoring plan for each patient. If your blood counts begin to shift, your care plan adapts with them. Physicians work proactively to prevent cloned cells from multiplying — keeping more patients cancer-free for longer.
This is preventive medicine at its most precise, and it’s one more reason why patients with a CH diagnosis or those at elevated risk, choose care at Siteman Cancer Center.