Hi,
I still think the Center of Excellence will be able to verify what type of MDS your dad has & if he has chromosome damage. Anyone who has had prior chemo or radiation is automatically considered to have secondary MDS. They will usually find lots of chromosome damage because of the chemo & radiation. The Center of Excellence will do a BMB & from that the doctor will get a diagnosis from the Bone Marrow Aspirate, Core Biopsy, Clot Section & Peripheral Blood. This report will give the doctor information on your dad's peripheral blood & bone marrow. The doctor will also do a chromosome Analysis for Hematologic Disorders, Bone Marrow. That test will show if your dad has abnormal chromosomes & which chromosomes are abnormal. These tests are what they did on my husband & how they determined that he had MDS secondary. The test determined that he had both de novo & therapy-related myeloid malignancies. Secondary is harder to treat because of the abnormal chromosome damage & is considered high risk, which has a high probability it will evolve into AML. Please make sure you have a list of questions to ask the doctor. If you aren't sure of what to ask you can look at the links I have included below:
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society:
Home Page:
http://www.lls.org/hm_lls
You can navigate this site to blood cancers, MDS, etc.
LLS education series on MDS:
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=74405 this site should list the MDS phone conference
MDS Foundation:
This site has lots of information & will send you excellent brochures, etc.
Home Page:
http://www.mds-foundation.org/
AA/MDS Foundation:
This is another excellent site. Also can provide lots of information to you.
Home page:
http://www.aamds.org/aplastic/
Please keep me posted on what your dad finds out. I'm pretty sure that your dad & my husband's diagnosis will be similar because of prior chemo treatments for Non Hodgkins's Lymphoma.
Sincerely,
Sandy Peterson