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Deoxyuridine (dU) suppression test and granulocyte macrophage colony forming unit (CFU-GM) assay were performed, along with morphological analysis, vitamin B12 and folate assays, in 22 cases of macrocytic anaemia corresponding to various types of idiopathic dysmyelopoietic syndromes. The dU suppressive effect was found to be normal in 19 cases, and slightly subnormal in 3 cases. The parallel study of the in vitro bone marrow growth showed, except in cases of primary acquired sideroblastic anaemia, a reduced number of colonies associated with a relative increase of the cluster formation. Consequently, these two parallel functional studies can support a formal diagnosis of potentially preleukaemic myelodysplasia, whatever may be the morphological pattern and even in cases of marked macrocytic anaemias and secondary epiphenomenal folate or vitamin B12 deficiency.

A seven-year-old child treated for a Ewing's sarcoma of the pelvis with a combination of radiotherapy and sequential polychemotherapy (vincristine, cyclophosphamide, adriamycine and procarbazine), developed an acute myeloblastic leukaemia fourty-one months later. The leukaemia was preceded by a ten-month period of isolated moderate neutropenia. Several possible explanations of the aetiology of this association are discussed, with particular emphasis on current concepts of the histogenesis of Ewing's sarcoma, and more particularly the possible role of radiotherapy and cytotoxic treatment in the induction of acute leukaemia.