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One abstract in particular caught my eye:
EHA18ABSSUB-3848
MULTICENTER STUDY EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF HYPOMETHYLATING AGENTS AS BRIDGING THERAPY TO HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION IN MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES
The authors studied the effects of azacitidine or decitabine before a transplant, to learn whether these drugs had a positive or negative effect on the subsequent transplant. They found that taking these hypomethylating agents can make engraftment take longer, which is a disadvantage. However, they also found that patients with higher blast counts had longer "event-free" survival if they took hypomethylating agents before their transplant, despite the longer time to engraftment.
As is common, the authors recommend more research, but this lends weight to the notion that it is suitable for high-risk MDS patients to take Vidaza or Dacogen even if they are going to have a transplant, and that this is less desirable for low-risk MDS patients.
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