Efficacy: Response to treatment will be assessed according to the guidelines of the international working group to standardize response criteria for myelodysplastic syndromes. This will be done on bone marrow biopsies (including cytogenetic analyses) and peripheral blood counts. An additional scientific investigation will examine gene-expression profiles of bone-marrow and blood samples at different time points and will try to correlate those with response to treatment. Concomitant in-vitro studies will assess surrogate markers of response.