Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of cyclosporin A (CsA) in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and to identify determinants of a response to this therapy.
Subjects and methods: The efficacy of CsA was evaluated in 52 patients (30 men and 22 women aged 16 to 74 years) with MDS. Thirty-two patients were given CsA as first-line therapy; 20 patients took the agent after prior therapy. CsA was used in a daily oral dose of 5 mg/kg. Its efficacy was evaluated following 3, 6, and 12 months. Actuarial survival was determined by the Kaplan-Meier method.
Results: The efficacy of CsA used as first- and second-line therapy was 56 and 55%, respectively; complete remissions were achieved in 19 and 20% of cases. Baseline refractory anemia (RA) transformed to RA with excess blasts (RAEB) in 31% of cases; baseline RAEB did to acute myeloid leukemia in 34%. Overall survival was significantly associated with bone marrow (BM) blast cell percentage (< 5% or > 5%; p = 0.0009), BM cellularity (hypoplasia and focal hypoplasia of hematopoiesis or BM hyperplasia; p = 0.03), focal polyclonal lymphoid infiltration in the BM (p = 0.01) and karyotype anomalies (low, moderate, and high risks; p = 0.001).
Conclusion: CsA is the drug of choice in treating patients with MDS, including RA, RA with ringed sideroblasts, refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia, with hypoplasia of hematopoiesis, with nodular polyclonal lymphoid infiltration in the BM, a normal karyotype or changes corresponding to a low or moderate IPSS risk.