Hi @bella2b With your dad being 79, a bone marrow transplant (BMT) for his MDS diagnosis would probably not be offered as a treatment option. While there is no exact age cut off it seems to be around 75-ish if the patient is in excellent health with no other co-morbidities. But that would be a discussion for you and your dad to have with his doctors in the future.

The reason being, as we age, the body’s ability to process and eliminate drugs/medications decrease. With the BMT there are intensive preconditioning protocol which can be pretty taxing to the body and also quite a few drugs taken post transplant for several months to years for some patients.

If your dad was just diagnosed, there are a number of treatment options available for him which may help slow the progression of the disease or ease many of the symptoms. So those would be the first line treatments his doctors would most likely suggest.

Here’s a list of discussions in the forum with other members who have been diagnosied with myelodyplastic syndromes - (MDS) Please feel free to jump into any conversation that might be relevant and ask questions.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/
There are different subtypes of MDS which can influence the type of treatment. A quick tutorial from Mayo: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/myelodysplastic-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20366977

Was your dad having symptoms that led to his diagnosis? Has his doctor discussed treatment options?