Physicians with University of Minnesota Health Cancer Care make up an internationally recognized team known for its innovative and compassionate care for patients with pre-cancerous conditions like myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) or myeloproliferative disease (MPD). Many treatments that are now available to patients around the world were pioneered at our National Cancer Institute-designated research center: Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.
Disease severity can range from mild MDS, with low impact on quality of life, to severe MDS, with severely low blood counts, repeated infections, need for blood transfusions and increasing risks of progression to AML.
Blood and marrow transplant (BMT) is currently the only cure for MDS patients. University of Minnesota Health Cancer Care physicians have been a world leader in treating blood cancers, like MDS, with BMT since 1968, when the world’s first successful BMT was completed here.
Our care team creates individualized treatment plans for MDS patients by evaluating not only the type and severity of the disease, but also the patient’s overall health and goals for treatment. For those patients who are elderly or who are not good candidates for a BMT, numerous chemotherapy treatment choices exist.
We continue to perform leading-edge research in collaboration with scientists at the Masonic Cancer Center with the goal of improving treatments while limiting side effects. This research often benefits patients who have failed standard therapies.
