Clinical evaluation of extra-hematological comorbidity in myelodysplastic syndromes: "ready-to-wear" versus "made-to-measure" tools.

There is growing evidence to indicate that comorbidity has an unfavorable effect on life expectancy of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and significantly influences clinical decision making. These data strengthen the importance of not basing definition of the prognostic value of comorbidity in the clinical setting of MDS patients exclusively on the severity of the comorbid condition per se, but also taking MDS-specific features into account.