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Your care is the most important job for our providers. We aim for a personalized approach that fits your condition and your life. Your treatment plan will be customized for your unique diagnosis and needs. Meet our team.
Hearing you may have a rare blood cancer can turn your world upside down.
When you’re diagnosed with a myeloid disorder, you may have a lot of things running through your mind all at once. What kind of treatment will I need? How will I feel? Will I be OK? And who can help me through this?
Cleveland Clinic is one of the nation’s top research centers for blood cancer. Our internationally recognized experts understand these complex conditions — and provide the compassionate treatment and support you need. Our goal? To give you the best possible treatment results so you can live life on your terms and focus on what matters most.
Your care is the most important job for our providers. We aim for a personalized approach that fits your condition and your life. Your treatment plan will be customized for your unique diagnosis and needs. Meet our team.
Your dedicated team of healthcare providers from different specialties supports you throughout your treatment journey. They meet weekly to talk about your care plan and progress to make sure you’re getting the best possible results from your treatments.
We’ve published 450+ publications— some of which have helped set the standards for care. We offer a full range of treatments for myeloid disorders, including chemotherapy, targeted therapy and bone marrow (stem cell) transplants — plus clinical trials and registries not widely available elsewhere.
Not feeling up to an in-person appointment but need a quick check-in with your care team? Virtual visits are a great alternative. You can meet online with your providers from the comfort of your home.
Cleveland Clinic is a trusted healthcare leader. We’re recognized in the U.S. and throughout the world for our expertise and care.
There are two primary non-leukemia types of myeloid disorders. These blood cancers start in your bone marrow (the spongy inside of your bones). They grow in stem cells called myeloid cells, which make red blood cells in the marrow.
When red blood cells don’t grow and mature as they should, they may die in the marrow instead of moving into your bloodstream. This makes the marrow crowded, leaving less room for healthy cells to keep growing.
If this happens, you may get myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), also known as myelodysplasia. This condition can cause anemia, frequent infections and bleeding that won’t stop. It can sometimes develop into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) — another type of myeloid disorder.
The myeloid disorder myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) happens when your bone marrow makes too many red blood cells. Three main kinds aren’t considered leukemias:
In addition to AML, there’s also chronic myeloid leukemia or CML, a blood condition that results from genetic changes (mutations). While it’s an ongoing condition, we can treat it, and it sometimes goes into remission (symptoms lessen or go away for a period of time).
Myeloid disorders often start quietly, causing few, if any, symptoms. You might feel tired or short of breath, bruise easily or look paler than normal. It might be harder to sleep at night because you’re sweaty. Or you may have headaches, bone pain and weight loss.
Because these symptoms are like those of other, less serious conditions, it’s important to work with experienced healthcare providers. Our team are experts in diagnosing and treating blood cancers like myeloproliferative neoplasms and myelodysplastic syndrome.
We explore all treatment options to find the best ones for you. And we build them into a highly personalized treatment plan that keeps you at the center of your care.
We’ll start with an evaluation. The first thing your provider will do is ask you to share your story. They’ll want to know about your symptoms, how they’re affecting your life and whether you’ve had any previous tests. They’ll ask about any other health conditions, too, and whether anyone in your family has had cancer.
Your provider will also do a physical exam to check your general health and look for noticeable symptoms. They may also order tests, like:
You may have some of these tests on the same day as your evaluation. For others, you may have to schedule appointments on another day. Our team will use the results from these tests to help confirm a diagnosis and move forward with building your treatment plan.
When you come to Cleveland Clinic, you’ll have a team of healthcare providers from different specialties handpicked based on your diagnosis and needs. Your care team may include:
These providers work together to plan your care, keep an eye on your progress and make changes to your treatment plan if needed. And they’ll always keep you in the loop about what’s going on and what you can expect.
Our healthcare providers see patients at convenient locations throughout Northeast Ohio and Florida.
Blood cancers like myeloproliferative neoplasms and myelodysplastic syndrome have similar treatments. And the treatments you’ll have will depend on your diagnosis. Your providers will consider your age, the type of myeloid disorder, how severe it is and your general health.
If you have a lower-risk form of a myeloid disorder with no symptoms, we may not start treatment right away, or at all. Instead, we’ll do what we call watchful waiting. We’ll have you come to regular checkups and run tests to make sure your condition doesn’t get worse.
If you have symptoms and higher-risk MDS or MPN, you may have:
To destroy unhealthy blood cells and slow the progress of these conditions, we may use:
You may also have growth factor therapy using erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). This treatment helps your kidneys make more of a hormone called erythropoietin to stimulate your bone marrow to make red blood cells.
An allogeneic stem cell transplant offers the chance for a cure. This transplant means we’ll replace your damaged stem cells with healthy donor cells to restart normal red blood cell growth. Your donor cells may come from a family member, a donor you don’t know or from umbilical cord blood collected after birth.
You’ll have chemotherapy before your transplant to destroy as many of your unhealthy stem cells as possible. And you’ll take immunosuppressants after treatment to reduce the risk of your body rejecting the donor cells.
Your providers may recommend other treatments, like blood transfusions to replace red blood cells and platelets. If you’re prone to getting blood clots, you may need to take medications. We might recommend blood thinners (anticoagulants) or aspirin to lower your risk. Or you may need drugs that prevent your bone marrow from making too many platelets. If your myeloid disorder has triggered anemia, we might also have to treat this condition alongside your blood cancer.
The only cure for myeloid disorders is a successful stem cell transplant. But if you can’t have one — or if one isn’t successful — we can manage your condition in other ways. You’ll see your care team and have blood tests every few months so they can keep a close eye on your blood counts and general health. And you’ll need to be aware of how you’re feeling and watch for any changes in your body that might be signs of myeloid disorders.
Having blood cancer can be physically, mentally and emotionally tiring. We can connect you with someone to talk to if you want emotional support as you go through treatment and follow-up. We’re here to treat the whole you.
Learning you may have cancer in your red blood cells can feel overwhelming. You might have questions about treatment, recovery or what comes next. At Cleveland Clinic, our experts in myeloid disorders provide clear answers and compassionate support. From diagnosis through treatment and follow-up, we’ll be with you, so you’re never facing this journey alone.
Getting an appointment with Cleveland Clinic’s myeloid disorders experts is easy. We’re here to help you get the care you need.
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Learning you have cancer can be stressful, shocking and challenging. From the moment you get the news, you're a survivor. As you face the challenges that go along with cancer treatment and recovery — physical and emotional — we’ll be right there with you.
At Cleveland Clinic, survivorship care is one part of your journey. We offer a wide range of services, resources, clinics and support groups to help with any physical, emotional, financial and spiritual needs you might have related to your cancer diagnosis. Lending a helping hand along the way, we want you to not only survive, but thrive on this journey and beyond.