Might arsenic trioxide be useful in the treatment of advanced myelodysplastic syndromes?

Failure of conventional therapies is dramatic in patients with advanced mye lodysplastic syndromes (MDS), thus therapeutic approaches that increase the apoptotic rate of myelodysplastic syndrome cells might be advantageous. We studied the behavior of cells exposed to As2O3 in vitro from patients with advanced MDS. Our data show that therapeutically useful concentrations of As2O3 increase the rate of apoptosis in short-term cultures. Moreover, pre- treatment with GM-CSF increased the sensitivity of the cells to the effect of As2O3.