Robin Roberts has 'Myelodysplastic syndrome'

[Are_grits_groceries]

<snip>
Myelodysplastic syndromes are a group of disorders caused by poorly formed or dysfunctional blood cells. Myelodysplastic syndromes occur when something goes wrong in your bone marrow — the spongy material inside your bones where blood cells are made.

There is no cure for myelodysplastic syndromes. Treatment for myelodysplastic syndromes usually focuses on reducing or preventing complications of the disease and its treatments. In certain cases, myelodysplastic syndromes are treated with a bone marrow transplant, which may help prolong life.
<snip>
http://www.bing.com/health/article/mayo-MADS00596/Myelodysplastic-syndromes?q=myelodysplastic+syndrome&qpvt=Myoplastic+syndrome

She just announced this on GMA. her sister is almost a perfect match, and when ready, she will be having a bone marrow transplant.

Feels like it's raining all the time.

[Mass]

1. I just heard that. Sad news.

My thoughts and prayers are with her.

[CTyankee]

2. why is it that survivors of one cancer often develop another?

She had breast cancer a few years ago...

[HappyMe]

3. Some chemotherapy treatments

can, in time, cause other problems/diseases.

I believe that she said that this was the case, in this instance.
My thoughts are with her & her family in this trying and scary time.

[kestrel91316]

4. Chemo drugs can in some cases lead to cancer themselves down the road.

Particularly hemic-lymphatic cancers.

[CTyankee]

6. the husband of a very good friend of mine just died of brain cancer...

he had been "cured" of colon cancer about 10 years earlier...that made me wonder, too...

[kestrel91316]

8. More likely that the "brain" cancer was metastatic colon cancer

that got missed by drugs and took 10 years to blow up. Or primary brain cancer maybe from cell phone use.

Chemo-related cancers tend to involve the bone marrow and blood cell production or the lymphatic system.

[CTyankee]

11. he had developed 3 brain tumors. 2 were benign and the third not. surgery could not reach

all of the cancer and it killed him some 10 months after the surgery and it was a year after his initial diagnosis...

[Wounded Bear]

7. Chemo attacks the immune system

. nt

[Th1onein]

10. Chemo and radiation are both carcinogenic

Therefore, many people that get treated for their original cancer by these methods often develop a second type of cancer years later.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. She certainly has had her medical problems. Sad to hear.

[DCBob]

9. Serious disease that seems to becoming more common.

My father died from this.

[GCP]

12. I don't envy what she's going to go through

Bone marrow transplants are harrowing, both the heavy chemo beforehand to kill off her own bone marrow, then graft vs host disease she may come down with. If she gets through that, she'll probably be ok.
Good luck to a nice lady.

[ananda]

13. My mother had myelodysplasia.

It got worse after she had chemo for breast cancer... and she died
from that blood disorder even though the chemo got the cancer.