The objective of this protocol is to determine whether an experimental drug can normalize hematopoietic cell growth and differentiation in patients with 5q minus syndrome The patients will be treated with an experimental drug for 3 months and will be monitored for improvements in their counts. In addition, bone marrow colony assays will be performed in the presence and absence of the experimental drug. Several genes in the 5q minus region will be screened for mutations by direct DNA sequencing. FISH analysis for these genes will also be performed in the cytogenetic material to assess the presence of the corresponding gene studied.
