• Investigational  Treatment with other, more experimental, agents can also try to "push" the leukemic cells in
  the direction of normal cells in appearance and function. Investigative agents now being evaluated include
  growth factors or cytokines such as G-CSF (granulocyte colony stimulating factor), a new synthetic chemical
  agent called HMBA (hexamethylene bisacetamide), IL-3 (interleukin-3) or vitamin A analogues (retinoic acid).
  It is too soon to know how effective these innovative treatments are.

• Intensive chemotherapy  When the preleukemic stage becomes similar to an acute leukemia—in other words, it
  becomes a more aggressive form with survival a matter of months—standard therapy is similar to that
  described for acute leukemia.

• Bone Marrow Transplantation  Even though bone marrow transplantation has been available for the past 15
  years, it is still a new type of management. In several large studies on allogeneic marrow transplantations for
  young patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, there seems to be some indication that approximately half the
  patients may obtain a long-term disease-free survival. This is still an investigational treatment.