The IPSS charts that you see on a number of web pages (
example) were based on the data gathered by
Greenberg et al. for the development of the IPSS in 1997. That predated the drugs now used to treat MDS, so those survival statistics were for patients who received only supportive treatment.
Patients looking at IPSS charts or FAB charts (
example from 2002) should keep a few facts in mind:
- The older the statistics, the more pessimistic they will tend to be.
- Mean survival improves every year as established treatments are refined and new treatments are developed.
- "Mean survival" does not indicate how many years most patients in the study lived. It's an average; half the studied patients survived at most that long and half survived longer, and many survive much longer.
- Statistics apply to a group of patients and not to one particular patient. Many other factors affect survival, including age, prior treatments and responses to treatment, and general health.