title: Are myelodysplastic syndromes "cancer"? Unexpected adverse consequences of linguistic ambiguity.
abstract: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal, neoplastic disorders of hematopoietic tissue that convey a guarded prognosis, but physicians vary in whether they refer to MDS as a "cancer" when discussing the diagnosis with patients. Because of past ambiguity about whether MDS is truly a malignancy, confusion about MDS terminology is widespread. Additionally, patients who carry one of the dubious cancer-specific health insurance policies are usually not eligible for financial benefits when they receive a diagnosis of MDS. Likewise, patients with MDS who have been led to believe they do not have a form of cancer by their primary physician may become upset when seeing another health care provider who does refer to MDS in this way. Here, I discuss evidence supporting broader consideration of MDS as a form of malignant neoplasia - i.e., cancer - as well as some of the relevant practical issues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine (Hematology) and Oncology, Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. steensma.david@mayo.edu
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Steensma
mesh_terms: D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000145:classification; D008037:Linguistics; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000145:classification* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000145:classification*; D011379:Prognosis