Dr. Michael Rauh received funding from the AFP Innovation Fund entitled

2012 March 19

"Towards earlier detection and personalized diagnosis in Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS): a SEAMO-driven initiative of the Canadian MDS Consortium".

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are blood cancers that cause debilitating and life-threatening bleeding, infections, and transfusion-dependence, often transforming to acute leukemia. MDS primarily afflicts older adults but diagnosis is commonly delayed because of limited detection tools that lag behind genetic advances. Faced with our aging population and newly available effective forms of treatment, earlier MDS detection and methods to tailor patient-specific therapy are direly needed.
Using a Canada-wide MDS patient tissue bank and database, we plan to test the hypothesis that next-generation gene- and protein-based tests will enhance MDS detection sensitivity and risk-stratification, creating a translational pipeline for transferable practice changes.

rauh2012mar