azacitidine or decitabine

Azacitidine or decitabine refers to the use of either azacitidine or decitabine, two closely related hypomethylating agents, as alternative options for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. Both drugs are nucleoside analogs that inhibit DNA methyltransferases, leading to DNA hypomethylation and reactivation of silenced tumor suppressor genes. Azacitidine is primarily incorporated into RNA (with some incorporation into DNA), while decitabine is incorporated only into DNA. Both drugs are approved for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and are also used in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially in patients who are elderly or unfit for intensive chemotherapy[1][3][5][9]. They have similar mechanisms but differ slightly in their pharmacology and clinical profiles.