With high rates of relapse in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), there is a great unmet need for novel treatments that are effective and tolerable, despite the heterogeneous nature of MDS. A recent shift in personalized medicine has resulted in a number of clinical trials investigating the combination of hypomethylating agents with novel therapies which likely have a significant impact on the standard of care in MDS. For patients who fail conventional chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and other immunotherapies represent promising therapies.

In this exclusive podcast, David Sallman, MD, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, and Andrew Brunner, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, discuss the limitations of current standards of care for MDS and explore emerging treatment targets and strategies for this condition, including drug combinations and cell therapies, especially in TP53-mutated MDS. This interview took place at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition Congress, Atlanta, GA, 2021.