Cytosine arabinoside in low doses in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome. Czechoslovak MDS Cooperative Group

: The authors present an account of the therapeutic results with small doses of cytosine arabinoside--20 mg/m2/day--in 56 patients where in almost 10% of the patients long-term "complete" remission was achieved and in 22% partial remission. When very small doses were used, i.e. 5 mg/m2/day, only one partial remission was achieved in a total number of 10 patients. From analysis of the therapeutic results some practical conclusions can be drawn which are listed in the discussion. So far we do not know effective treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome and recommend therefore to test in suitable patients small doses of ARA-C, despite the fact that a favourable response to this treatment can be expected only in about one third of the patients.