Bone marrow fibrosis in myelodysplastic syndromes: a prospective evaluation including mutational analysis

Spanish Group for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (GESMD).The biological and molecular events that underlie bone marrow fibrosis in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes are poorly understood, and its prognostic role in the era of the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) is not yet fully determined. We have evaluated the clinical and biological events that underlie bone marrow fibrotic changes, as well as its prognostic role, in a well-characterized prospective patient cohort (n=77) of primary MDS patients. The degree of marrow fibrosis was linked to parameters of erythropoietic failure, marrow cellularity, p53 protein accumulation, WT1 gene expression, and serum levels of CXCL9 and CXCL10, but not to other covariates including the IPSS-R score. The presence of bone marrow fibrosis grade 2 or higher was associated with the presence of mutations in cohesin complex genes (31.5% vs. 5.4%, p=0.006). By contrast, mutations in CALR, JAK2, PDGFRA, PDGFRB, and TP53 were very rare. Survival analysis showed that marrow fibrosis grade 2 or higher was a relevant significant predictor for of overall survival, and independent of age, performance status, and IPSS-R score in multivariate analysis.This work was partially supported by research funding from Celgene S.L., Madrid, Spain, by the Fundación Española de Hematología y Hemoterapia (FEHH) (MDR) and by grants (RD12/0036/0069 and RD12/0036/0044) from the Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer (RTICC), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) “Una manera de hacer Europa”; Junta de Castilla y León (GRS 994/A/14, BIO/SA47/13 and GRS 1033/A/14). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under Grant Agreement no. 306242-NGS-PTL.Peer Reviewe