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I recently had a visit with my Hematologist who has been having excellent transplant results for MDS and he said that it has become his practices standard procedure to start on Vidaza or Dacogen to reduce tumor burden on many patients to help the transplant process. He was not sure what the mechanism of action was, but there is some observational evidence suggesting that vidaza and dacogen in particular better prepare the marrow for conditioning and transplant.
There are some articles out there that refer to this mechanism as epigenetic priming.
I do recommend a second opinion when it comes to treatment options, but the finding of a missing chromosome 7 is pretty suggestive of MDS, so a second biopsy may or may not be helpful in deciding a treatment course. If you have high-risk MDS, many of the studies out there say that transplanting sooner than later is the better option - they don't specify whether pre-transplant treatment is good, bad, or indifferent though.
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MDS RCMD w/grade 2-3 fibrosis. Allo-MUD Feb 26, 2014. Relapsed August 2014. Free and clear of MDS since November 2014 after treatment with Vidaza and Rituxan. Experiencing autoimmune attack on CNS thought to be GVHD, some gut, skin and ocular cGVHD. Neuropathy over 80% of body.
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