{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 415: Myelodysplastic Syndrome Treatment Considerations for Oncology Nurses","description":"\u201cWe want to make sure that we discuss the details of the treatment and what treatments there are, whether it\u2019s an oral drug, whether it\u2019s a subcutaneous injection or an IV injection, [the patient\u2019s] potential for responding, whether this treatment is curative or supportive, and what the number of visits are. All of those different pieces of information that go into the decision-making process are really important,\u201d ONS member Sara Tinsley-Vance, PhD, APRN, AOCN\u00ae, nurse practitioner and quality-of-life researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS\u00ae, TCTCN\u2122, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) treatment considerations. Music Credit: \u201cFireflies and Stardust\u201d by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by May 15, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center\u2019s Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge about the treatment considerations for MDS. Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.  ONS Podcast\u2122 episodes: Episode 411: An Overview of Myelodysplastic Syndrome for Oncology Nurses Episode 256: Cancer Symptom Management Basics: Hematologic Complications ONS Voice articles: FDA Approves Luspatercept-Aamt for Anemia in Adults With MDS Infection Prevention for Oncology Nurses Manage Cancer-Associated Anemia With Erythropoietin-Stimulating Agents Whole-Genome Sequencing May Guide Treatment Choices for AML and MDS Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:  Reducing Effects of Hospital-Associated Deconditioning in Patients Undergoing Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Resilience in Older Adults Diagnosed With Cancer and Receiving Chemotherapy Targeted Drug Therapies: Beyond Blood Counts and Chemistries Oncology Nursing Forum article: Frailty in Patients With Hematologic Malignancies and Those Undergoing Transplantation: A Scoping Review ONS books:  BMTCN\u2122 Certification Review Manual (second edition) Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Manual for Nursing Practice (third edition) ONS course: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation\u2122 ONS Learning Library: Hematology, Cellular Therapy, and Stem Cell Transplantation ONS Symptom Intervention resources: Prevention of Infection: General Prevention of Infection: Transplant Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation: MDS Drugs and Treatments Blood Cancer United: MDS Treatment HealthTree Foundation Myelodysplastic Syndromes Foundation To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.  To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode \u201cThe goals that I try to consolidate to make sure they\u2019re consistent with the patient\u2019s goals are to improve their counts, especially the anemia or cytopenias. If they\u2019re getting blood transfusions, we want to reduce the number of transfusions that they receive because we know that\u2019s linked to reduced overall survival, and it really impacts quality of life. ... And then for high-risk patients, it\u2019s a more serious discussion because we know that they are the ones who can progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). And we\u2019re trying to delay progression to AML. That means we\u2019re trying to improve their survival and we\u2019re also trying to manage their cytopenias and decrease their infection risk.\u201d TS 2:28 \u201cIf we look at approvals for low-risk disease and high-risk disease, those were really made based on the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) and sometimes the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS). Under those classification systems, when we think of lower-risk MDS, we think of patients who are primarily anemic but don\u2019t have increased blasts in their bone marrow. ... For higher-risk MDS, we want to have that discussion with those patients because their life expectancy is much shorter than patients with lower-risk MDS. We want to see if hematopoietic stem cell transplant would be something that they would be interested in if they don\u2019t have a lot of comorbidities and are relatively healthy.\u201d TS 11:41 \u201cThere are a lot of things to consider\u2014[patients\u2019] blood counts, comorbidities, whether they\u2019re frail, and what their goals are. There are some patients where there\u2019s no way they would want to go through transplant. And some patients want to be cured, so it just depends on your patient.\u201d TS 14:22 \u201cI think of hematopoietic allogeneic transplants as a treatment for more of the patients with higher-risk MDS. ... With the Molecular International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-M), a patient can have pretty good blood counts and not have increased blasts in the bone marrow. You could send them for a transplant referral upfront without having to give them additional treatment. ... There is a recent publication that said if a patient doesn\u2019t have more than 10% blast, you could refer to transplant as a first option. ... Also, if you had a lower-risk patient who is relatively young and doesn\u2019t have any other treatment options, this would also be a patient that you could refer to transplant to see if we could care for them, and then they wouldn\u2019t have to be getting transfused all the time.\u201d TS 21:12 \u201cI think that we often think low-risk, no treatment needed, but it depends on the person. They often need ongoing supportive care to manage their symptoms even if they\u2019re not getting treatment. And just because we\u2019re not treating them, active observation, bringing them in to see how they\u2019re doing, if they\u2019ve had infections, if their blood counts are changing, that is paying attention to them and doing something. Just because they\u2019re low-risk doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t need anything and we can just schedule for a one-year follow-up.\u201d TS 26:30 ","author_name":"The ONS Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/onsvoice.libsyn.com\/website","html":"