Vitamin K₂ therapy for myelodysplastic syndrome

Abstract

Vitamin K₂ is reported to induce apoptosis or differentiation of leukemic cell lines in vitro. We administered a vitamin K₂ analog, menatetrenone, at 45 mg daily to 23 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS): 13 patients with RA, 2 with RARS, 6 with RAEB and 2 with RAEB-T. Good response (GR) and partial response (PR) were defined as an increase of hemoglobin concentration exceeding 2 g/dl and 1∼2 g/dl without transfusion, respectively. Six of the RA patients showed improvement of anemia (GR, 3 patients; PR, 3 patients). RA patients who did not have a hypocellular bone marrow and were transfusion-independent tended to be responsive to vitamin K₂ therapy in combination with vitamin D₃ or anabolic steroids. No adverse effect of vitamin K₂ was observed, and the time required to obtain the hematological response was short, being 3 months on average. We believe that vitamin K₂ therapy has potential as a treatment for patients with MDS.