Abstract
![Graphic][1] Marilyn L. Slovak, PhD, FACMG, MT(ASCP), began her distinguished career as a medical technologist. After earning her PhD in regulatory biology, she went on to serve as cytogenetic laboratory director at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., for over 20 years before becoming medical director of Cytogenetics at Sonora Quest Laboratory in Tempe, Ariz., in 2012. She retired July 2015 and now does consulting. Dr. Slovak served on the International Cytogenetics Committee for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDSs) and in collaboration with Dr. Peter Greenberg and the International Working Group for Prognosis in MDS (IWG-PM) revised the International Prognostic Scoring System, or IPSS (1997), for MDS. The IPSS-R (revised) is regarded as the international gold standard classification system for MDS. This scoring system estimates overall survival and risk of transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in patients with primary MDS. The IPSS-R introduces several novel components, including five rather than three cytogenetic prognostic subgroups of IPSS (1997) with specific and new classifications of a number of less common cytogenetic subsets, splitting the low marrow blast percentage value, and depth (instead of the number) of cytopenias. Dr. Slovak also served on the faculty that developed the curriculum for the four MDS Summit workshops funded by an education grant from Celgene, that ASCP has co-hosted with the American Society of Hematology (ASH). She took time recently for an interview with ASCP about her involvement in both endeavors. Critical Values: Tell us about the MDS workshops and how this education translates into better patient care. Marilyn Slovak : Because MDS is a heterogeneous disease of myeloid clonal hemopathies, many hematologists/on-cologists have found great value in the IPSS-R system for estimating the overall survival and risk of transformation to AML in a patient with a new diagnosis of MDS. A time-sensitive complicating … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif
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