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REVIEW article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Hematologic Malignancies
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1447001
This article is part of the Research Topic MDS: New Scientific and Clinical Developments View all 12 articles

Immunophenotyping Myelodysplastic Neoplasms: the role of flow cytometry in the molecular classification era

Provisionally accepted
Evgenia Verigou Evgenia Verigou 1*Theodora Chatzilygeroudi Theodora Chatzilygeroudi 1,2Vasileios Lazaris Vasileios Lazaris 3Anne-Lise De Lastic Anne-Lise De Lastic 4Argiris Symeonidis Argiris Symeonidis 1*
  • 1 Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Patras, Patras, Greece
  • 2 Division of Hematological Malignancies and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, United States
  • 3 Department of Hematology, Nicosia General Hospital, Strovolos, Cyprus
  • 4 Laboratory of Immunohematology, School of Medicine, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The unique heterogenous landscape of myelodysplastic syndromes/neoplasms (MDS) has resulted in continuous redefinition of disease sub-entities, in view of the novel translational research data that have clarified several areas of the pathogenesis, and disease progression/ evolution. The new international classifications (WHO 2022, ICC 2022) have incorporated genomic data defining phenotypical alterations, that guide clinical management of specific patient subgroups. On the other hand, for over a decade, multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) has proven its value as a complementary diagnostic tool for these diseases and although it has never been established as a mandatory test for the baseline evaluation of MDS patients in international guidelines, it is almost universally adopted in everyday clinical practice for the assessment of suspected cytopenias through simplified scoring systems or elaborate analytical strategies for the detection of immunophenotypical dysplastic features in every hematopoietic cell lineage in the bone marrow (BM). In this review, we explore the clinically meaningful interplay of MFC data and genetic profiles of MDS patients, to reveal the currently existing and the potential future role of each methodology for routine clinical practice, and the benefit of the patients. We reviewed the existing knowledge and recent advances in the field and discuss how an integrated approach could lead to patient re-stratification and guide personalized management.

    Keywords: Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Myelodysplastic neoplasms, Flow Cytometry, immunophenotype, molecular genetics, Classification, diagnosis, prognosis

    Received: 10 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Verigou, Chatzilygeroudi, Lazaris, De Lastic and Symeonidis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Evgenia Verigou, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Patras, Patras, Greece
    Argiris Symeonidis, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.