A randomised therapeutic trial of 13-cis-retinoic acid was carried out in 70 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome having 5% or fewer marrow blast cells. Among non-sideroblastic patients the 1-year survival in the treated group was 77%, compared with 36% in the control group. There were too few deaths among patients with sideroblastic anaemia to allow any effect of therapy on survival to be evaluated.
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