Successful allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for childhood-onset refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts

Refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS) is an extremely rare type of myelodysplastic syndrome in children. We describe a 10-year-old boy wit h RARS presented with pancytopenia. He remained relatively stable with only a few transfusions until age of 20 years, when he underwent an allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) because of increased transfusion requirem ents. He remains in complete chimeric state at 20 months posttransplant wit h normal hematologic parameters. To our knowledge, this is the first descri ption of successful BMT in a patient with childhood-onset RARS. The indicat ion of BMT for this rare disorder in children is discussed.