Fanconi anaemia cells are hypersensitive to a variety of apoptotic cues (Rosselli, 1998) and oxidative stress (Pagano and Youssoufian, 2003), and there is emerging evidence that for neoplastic clones to evolve their progenitors must adapt by inactivating precisely the apoptotic signalling pathways aberrantly activated as a result of FA gene inactivation (Lensch et al, 1999). Here, FANCA is linked to Fanconi anemia.