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Erythroid variant of chronic myelogenous leukemia

Leukemia volume 22, pages 867–870 (2008)Cite this article

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a chronic myeloproliferative disorder that is characterized by leukocytosis, thrombocytosis and anemia with myeloid hyperplasia in the bone marrow.1 It affects 4500 people in the United States each year. Leukocytosis is invariably present with varying numbers of immature myeloid cells in the blood. Usually <5% circulating blasts are noted. Generally, there is a sustained and progressive rise in the white count; however, in a few instances there may be a periodic oscillation in peripheral blood leukocytes with or without antileukemic therapy.2 The platelet count is typically high or normal, but on occasion severe thrombocytopenia may be seen.3 Most patients are anemic and on occasion require red blood cell transfusion. The gold standard for diagnosis of CML is detection of the Philadelphia chromosome (t(9;22)(q34.1;q11.21)) and/or the Bcr–Abl1 hybrid gene.

We report a case of a 43-year-old male with a clinical picture resembling a myelodysplastic syndrome who presented with severe thrombocytopenia, mild anemia, normal WBC, splenomegaly and only erythroid hyperplasia in the bone marrow. Surprisingly, he was found to have t(9;22) on cytogenetic analysis. This patient was treated with imatinib mesylate and responded well. All blood counts returned to normal with disappearance of the cytogenetic abnormality. This response has persisted for more than 6 years. To the best of our knowledge, this presentation and response has not been described previously.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology–Oncology, Department of Medicine, Western Pennsylvania Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    N Talreja, H Abdulhaq, R K Shadduck, J Rossetti, A Jalil & J Lister

  2. Department of Hematology–Oncology, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA, USA

    A Makary

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  1. N Talreja
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  2. H Abdulhaq
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  3. R K Shadduck
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  4. J Rossetti
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  5. A Jalil
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  6. A Makary
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  7. J Lister
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Correspondence to N Talreja.

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Talreja, N., Abdulhaq, H., Shadduck, R. et al. Erythroid variant of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Leukemia 22, 867–870 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404965

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