Is this leukemia

[grungema3]

Is myelodysplastic anaemia  cancer? Mum, age 90, has been diagnosed,  many other conditions too, but  she lives with me and no-one will give me a straight answer. Please help. Every time I look on the internet the condition is under a cancer organisation. Has regular top up transfusions. I look after her and it's not fair for me not to know .

[Ken_PA]

hi, is it the sideroblastic kind? That's the only kind that I see mentioned as having a hereditary connection.

And I'd think that yes, it does show up with more advanced age.

If she also has heart failure, I'd think that contributes to tiredness etc  So does a beta blocker (a heart drug).

[grungema3]

sry, forgot to ask, pls don't laugh but I'm worried that this might be hereditary. No-one else in the family has any history. Is this a known geriatric condition? I know that there is a similar thing which starts in old age. Mum also has 2 leaky heart valves and pulmonary hypertension + had quadruple bypass about 15 yrs ago. Don't know if you're medical but just a bit of added history in case has any bearing on blood condition. Also takes loads of tabs - heart, diuretics, warfarin, thyroid etc. x

[grungema3]

Thank you so much for your clear, simple English, honest answer. It has taken me months to elicit those nine lines of info from anyone. Sorry I have waited so long to get back to you- Mum has been in hospital, then home , then increased dementia day and night, then me, ME/CFS so > exhaustion, sleep deprivation, depression. First time on here since that post. Once again, many, many thanks. Lovex

[Ken_PA]

Hi. It is referred to as pre-leukemia. Apparently, 1/3 go on to develop acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), which is the real cancer.

Aside from that, sorry to say, as you know the current problem is the lack of production of enough red blood cells - and that supposedly won't get better but will get worse over time.

myelo - refers to the bone marrow, where blood cells are made
dysplastic - means that production of cells is not as much as it should be
anemia - too few red blood cells are present in the blood

so, there are too few of the red blood cells because there aren't enough of them being made in the marrow. (In other conditions, there are too few because they are being destroyed.)