Increased apoptosis in bone marrow B lymphocytes in different subgroups of MDS. (A) Absolute lymphocyte count in peripheral blood samples from the different groups. A significant decrease in absolute lymphocyte count is noted in MDS and RAEB-T patients as compared with AML and CMML patients (P < .00001). The number of subjects included in each group is shown in parentheses. (B) Survival studies performed in 342 patients with MDS showing that patients with a peripheral blood absolute total lymphocyte count of more than 800/μL had a better survival (P = .02).