Given the formal demonstration of CSCs in MDS (Woll et al, 2014), and the promising findings of CLEC12A as a surrogate marker of LSCs in AML (van Rhenen et al, 2007a), we hypothesized CLEC12A could be used as an immunophenotypic marker of CSCs in MDS. Here, CLEC12A is linked to myelodysplastic syndrome.