Stanozolol: An effective alternative treatment for lower-risk MDS after epoetin alfa failure

Key clinical point: Stanozolol (STZ) monotherapy could be considered an alternative treatment in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) without del(5q) after the failure of epoetin alfa.

Major finding: Hematologic improvement-erythroid response (HI-E) and transfusion independence were achieved in 48.2% and 43.2% of patients, respectively. The estimated 5-year overall survival was higher in HI-E responders vs. nonresponders (88.6% vs. 33.8%). Most of the adverse events were manageable.

Study details: Findings are from a retrospective analysis of 56 patients with lower-risk MDS without del(5q) exclusively treated with STZ after failure of epoetin alfa as first-line treatment.

,

Disclosures: No source of funding was declared. The authors declared no competing interests.

Source: Qu WY et al. Ann Hematol. 2021 Apr 10. doi: 10.1007/s00277-021-04508-w.