MECOM and myelodysplastic syndrome: Mochizuki et al. (2000) first discovered the existence of the PRDM16 gene in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, which was also named MDS1/EVI1-like gene 1 (MEL1) because of its high homology with the MDS1/EVI1 gene (Mochizuki et al., 2000).