On 2016 Sep 19, Prashant Sharma, MD, DM commented:

Quoted from the abstract above, "Following WHO recommendations, refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB)-2 diagnosis is not possible in MDS-E, as patients with 10% to < 20% BM blasts from TNCs fulfill erythroleukemia criteria".

Err... where would WHO 2008 place a case with 51% erythroid cells and 3% blasts with Auer rods that's negative for the leukemia-defining recurring genetic abnormalities?

On 2016 Sep 19, Prashant Sharma, MD, DM commented:

Very interesting... This would certainly upgrade more than a few cases. Hopefully the WHO is listening, and other large centres are reanalyzing their marrow differentials for confirming/refuting this "game-changing" paper.

What about the blast% in remission status marrows from acute leukemia patients? Its currently mostly done from TNCs, but based on this study is it possible that calculating it from NECs would provide better prognostication?

• Prashant Sharma, Assoc. Prof. of Hematology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India

On 2016 Sep 19, Prashant Sharma, MD, DM commented:

Very interesting... This would certainly upgrade more than a few cases. Hopefully the WHO is listening, and other large centres are reanalyzing their marrow differentials for confirming/refuting this "game-changing" paper.

What about the blast% in remission status marrows from acute leukemia patients? Its currently mostly done from TNCs, but based on this study is it possible that calculating it from NECs would provide better prognostication?

• Prashant Sharma, Assoc. Prof. of Hematology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India