Michelle Ross
The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of clonal proliferative bone marrow disorders that result in dysmyelopoiesis and peripheral blood cytopenias. Despite the serious health outcomes of MDS, little is known about its causes. The few known risk factors include radiation or chemotherapy treatment for a previous malignancy, and exposure to benzene and possibly other solvents. It has also been suggested that the initial event in MDS may be infectious. The aims of our study were to investigate geographic clustering of MDS and first primary MDS (i.e., MDS cases with no previous cancer diagnoses) and to identify the location of potential clusters, for cases reported to the SEER program in the Seattle-Puget Sound region of Washington State from 2002-2006. Spatial modeling was performed using Poisson regression with non-spatial and spatial random effects. The Besag and Newell and Kulldorff methods were used for cluster detection. Our analyses did not indicate significant spatial dependence (clustering) either among all MDS cases or among first primary MDS. However, several local clusters were identified in Island and Pierce counties. Further investigation into potential causes of the identified clusters could potentially shed light on environmental risk factors for MDS.
