Premium
Anaplastic neoplasm in a patient with hairy cell leukemia
Author(s) -
Davis Kern M.,
Spindel Enrique,
Franzini Daisy A.,
Kitchens Craig S.,
Braylan Raul C.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19851115)56:10<2470::aid-cncr2820561023>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - medicine , neoplasm , leukemia , hairy cell leukemia , pathology , cancer research , dermatology
A 63‐year‐old white man had a history of recurrent pneumonia, pancytopenia, and splenomegaly when the diagnosis of hairy cell leukemia was made on bone marrow biopsy examination. Splenectomy confirmed that diagnosis and his pancytopenia moderately improved. Three years following the diagnosis, the patient developed an upper abdominal mass involving the stomach wall that was found to be an anaplastic “large cell” neoplasm. Palliative radiotherapy was started, but the patient died 2 months later. Cytochemical studies of the anaplastic gastric neoplasm revealed cytoplasmic tartrate resistant acid phosphatase activity. Electron microscopy showed no epithelial differentiation. These observations suggest that the gastric neoplasm represented an evolution of hairy cell leukemia into a more aggressive tumor analogous to the transformation that occurs in other B‐cell neoplasms.