[Mechanism and problem of amifostine in treating myelodysplastic syndromes]

Abstract

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is one of the most prevalent haematological malignancies originating from haemopoietic stem/progenitor cells. MDS characterized by morbid haematopoiesis of bone marrow and peripheral blood cell reduction and mainly occurs in the elders. The dangerous factors of MDS include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, benzene, other organic solvent, immune depressants and so on. Following the recent progress of medical sciences, a large number of new regimens of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immune therapy against carcinomas generate and lead the development of therapeutics for malignancies. It is worried that the incidence of MDS still increases year by year and the patient age becomes younger. Although many agents are used to MDS, curative effect is not as good as expect. Amifostine, a kind of pancytoprotector also used in treatment of MDS. This review summarizes the mechanism of amifostine in MDS therapy which possesses a challenge binding with the current related investigations.