[Retrospective study of 30 cases of myelodysplastic syndrome according to the French-American-British classification].

The bone marrow smears and marrow biopsies of 30 unselected consecutive patients with a myelodysplastic syndrome have been classified retrospectively according to the proposals of the French-American-British cooperative group (FAB). The diagnoses according to the FAB classification were refractory anemia (RA) in 3, RA with ring sideroblasts (RAS) in 5, RA with excess of blasts (RAEB) in 14, REAB in transformation (RAEB-t) in 5, and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) in 3. The group comprised 19 men and 11 women with a median age of 68 years. Of 22 patients, 9 died after progression to acute non lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL), 7 from infections, 2 from bleeding and 4 from unrelated causes. Actuarial survival is 10.5 months, 8 patients being at risk at the time of evaluation. Although the small number of patients does not allow statistical evaluation, our results are similar to those in the literature: prognosis is less good with an increasing number of marrow blasts and degree of cytopenia, and the risk of progression to ANLL is higher for REAB-t and REAB patients. Of 4 patients treated with small doses of cytosine-arabinoside (Ara-C), one responded and remained stable without treatment for 7 months. 2 patients resistant to small-dose Ara-C showed complete response to subsequent high-dose Ara-C treatment.