Speaking a common language in MDS/MPNs.

In this issue of Blood, Savona and an international consortium of clinical investigators propose uniform response criteria for treatment trials enrolling adult patients with myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPNs). Such a proposal is needed because new drugs are finally being tested in these rare “overlap” syndromes that have both dysplastic and proliferative pathological features, and neither the International Working Group (IWG) response criteria for myelodysplastic syndromes nor the IWG Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research and Treatment (IWG-MRT) response criteria for myelofibrosis or for other myeloproliferative neoplasms fit such patients well.