[edo288]

I was diagnosed with MDS - RCMD about a year ago. My GP started me on Procrit five months ago. I have had two transfusions in the past two months. Now, my Oncologist is starting a Vidaza 6-cycle treatment course in one week (5 days of injection/28 day cycle). It has just been made clear to me that MDS is cancer and will translate to AML. Currently, I feel great and suffer no apparent symptoms.

Here are some stats that will (perhaps) help you answer my questions at the end of this message:

Male age 70 diagnosed with Leukopenia and Microcytic Anemia with Multilineage Dysplacia. Cellularity is 70-80%. Blasts less than 5%. Cytogenetics demonstrated an interstitial deletion of the long arm of chromosome 9 which is in two copies. Hemoglobin maintaining above 10g/dL without additional transfusions. Absolute Neutrophil Count above 1,800/ul and Platelet count of 288,000/ul.

My Oncologist says that I am an intermediate risk and the Vidaza treatment course could extend my quality of life by 6 months to a year. He prognoses translation to AML in about 2 years with 6-9 months to live after translation (don't you hate it when they sugar-coat their prognosis).

Now, to my questions: To the extent possible, I want to spend whatever quality time I have traveling and having fun with my wife. How long between Vidaza cycles will I feel normal and feel like traveling? When and how will they know that Vidaza treatment are working? What typical tests will they perform to determine the treatment effectiveness?

Thanks in advance for your responses.