The term preleukemia originated in the 1940s when it referred to a long period of hematologic abnormalities of an indeterminate nature in some patients before the diagnosis of leukemia was confirmed. The concept of “pre-leukemia” has largely been discontinued and replaced by a group of diseases caused by abnormal development of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, myelodysplastic syndromes, MDS.
MDS is characterized by increased or normal numbers of erythrocytes, granulocytes, and megakaryocytes in the bone marrow, but with significant morphological changes of abnormal development (aberrant cell development); peripheral blood cells are markedly reduced, and some subtypes of MDS are at risk for transformation to acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML).
Dr. Xin Li of the Department of Hematology at Shanghai Renji Hospital South Hospital also contributed to this Q&A