Summary. Of 167 newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukaemia patients, 83 patients were long (L)-form (50%), eight variable (V)-form (5%) and 76 short (S)-form (45%). The V-form and S-form groups presented a significantly higher percentage of patients with white blood cell counts . 10 Â 10 9 /l (P , 0´05). The S-form cases displayed a significantly higher number of cases with M3v microgranular features (P 0´005) and CD34 expression (P , 0´0001). There were no differences between the three isoforms in complete remission (CR) rate (overall CR 90%), but the 3-year disease-free survival was lower for Vform cases than it was for L-and S-form cases (62% vs. 94% and 89%, P 0´056). We conclude that the V-form and Sform types are associated with some negative prognostic features at diagnosis. However, our data were only able to demonstrate an association with adverse prognosis in the Vform type and, moreover, as the number of cases was limited, needs to be confirmed in large, uniformly treated series.

This study aimed to evaluate the evolution of iron overload, assessed by serum ferritin (SF), in transfusion-dependent lower risk patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), as well as to describe the occurrence of organ complications, and to analyze its relationship with iron chelation therapy. This observational retrospective study was conducted from March 2010 to March 2011 in 47 Spanish hospitals. A total of 263 patients with lower risk MDS (International Prognostic Scoring System [IPSS] low/intermediate-1 risk or Spanish Prognostic Index [SPI] 0-1 risk), transfusion-dependent, and who had received ≥10 packed red blood cells (PRBC) were included. At MDS diagnosis, patients received a mean of 2.8 ± 3.9 PRBC/month, and 8.7% of patients showed SF ≥1000 μg/L. Over the course of the disease, patients received a mean of 83.4 ± 83.3 PRBC, and 36.1% of patients presented SF ≥2500 μg/L. Cardiac, hepatic, endocrine, or arthropathy complications appeared/worsened in 20.2, 11.4, 9.9, and 3.8% of patients, respectively. According to investigator, iron overload was a main cause of hepatic (70.0%) and endocrine (26.9%) complications. A total of 96 (36.5%) patients received iron chelation therapy for ≥6 months, being deferasirox the most frequent first chelation treatment (71.9%). Chelation-treated patients showed longer overall survival (p < 0.001), leukemia-free survival (p = 0.007), and cardiac event-free survival (p = 0.017) than non-chelated patients. In multivariable analyses, age (p = 0.011), IPSS (p < 0.001), and chelation treatment (p = 0.015) were predictors for overall survival; IPSS (p = 0.014) and transfusion frequency (p = 0.001) for leukemia-free survival; and chelation treatment (p = 0.040) and Sorror comorbidity index (p = 0.039) for cardiac event-free survival. In conclusion, these results confirm the potential survival benefit of iron chelation therapy and provide additional evidence on the deleterious effect of iron overload in lower risk MDS patients.

Previous studies have shown the reproducibility of the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) classification in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), especially when multilineage dysplasia or excess of blasts are present. However, there are few data regarding the reproducibility of MDS with unilineage dysplasia. The revised International Prognostic Scoring System R-IPSS described two new morphological categories, distinguishing bone marrow (BM) blast cell count between 0-2 % and >2- < 5 %. This distinction is critical for establishing prognosis, but the reproducibility of this threshold is still not demonstrated. The objectives of our study were to explore the reliability of the 2008 WHO classification, regarding unilineage vs. multilineage dysplasia, by reviewing 110 cases previously diagnosed with MDS, and to study whether the threshold of ≤2 % BM blasts is reproducible among different observers. We used the same methodology as in our previous paper [Font et al. (2013) Ann Hematol 92:19-24], by encouraging investigators to include patients with <5 % BM blasts. Samples were collected from 11 hospitals and were evaluated by 11 morphologists. Each observer evaluated 20 samples, and each sample was analyzed independently by two morphologists. Discordance was observed in 36/108 suitable cases (33 %, kappa test 0.503). Diagnosis of MDS with unilineage dysplasia (refractory cytopenia with unilineage dysplasia (RCUD), refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts (RARS) or unclassifiable MDS) was assessed in 33 patients, by either of the two observers. We combined this series with the cases with RCUD or RARS included in our 2013 paper, thus obtaining 50 cases with unilineage dysplasia by at least one of the observers. The whole series showed very low agreement regarding RCUD (5/23, 21 %) and RARS (5/28, 18 %). Regarding BM blast count, the threshold of ≤2 % was not reproducible (discordance rate 32/108 cases, kappa test 0.277). Our study shows that among MDS WHO 2008 categories, interobserver discordance seems to be high in cases with unilineage dysplasia. We also illustrate that the threshold of ≤2 % BM blasts as settled by the R-IPSS may be not easy to reproduce by morphologists in real practice.

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