The burden of red blood cell transfusions in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes and ring sideroblasts: an analysis of the prospective MDS-CAN registry
Rena Buckstein, Lisa Chodirker, Karen Yee, Michelle Geddes, Heather A. Leitch, Grace Christou, Versha Banerji, Brian Leber, Dina Khalaf, Ève St‐Hilaire, Nicholas Finn, Thomas J. Nevill, Mary‐Margaret Keating, John M. Storring, Anne Parmentier, Aksharh Thambipillai, Derek Tang, Christopher Westcott, Chris Cameron, Paul Spin
Abstract
Many patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (LR MDS) require long-term red blood cell (RBC) transfusions to manage anemia. The consequences of RBC transfusions in LR MDS with ring sideroblasts (LR MDS-RS) are not well known. We estimated the association between cumulative RBC dose density and clinical and patient-reported outcomes using data from the MDS-CAN registry for patients enrolled between January 2008 and December 2018. Outcomes included overall survival, hospitalization, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). A total of 145 enrolled patients with LR MDS and RS ≥5% had a median follow-up time of 27.1 months; 45 had no transfusions during follow-up, 51 had <1 transfusion per month, and 49 had ≥1 transfusion per month. The cumulative density of RBC transfusions was associated with significantly greater mortality, hospitalization, and inferior HRQoL, suggesting that exposure to RBC transfusion may constitute a significant treatment burden in patients with LR MDS-RS.