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Clinical course of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia in the blast crisis phase treated by acute myeloid leukemia-oriented chemotherapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

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Abstract

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a mixed myeloproliferative and myelodysplastic disorder that occurs in early childhood. The clinical course of JMML is highly variable. A third of patients follow a relatively indolent course, although approximately 15 % cases are thought to develop acute myeloid leukemia, referred to as blast crisis. The etiology and clinical characteristics of blast crisis remain unclear. We document the case of a 27-month-old boy who presented with hepatosplenomegaly, skin rash, and lymphadenopathy. An initial diagnosis of acute erythroid leukemia was made according to the French–American–British classification. Following estimation of hypersensitivity to GM-CSF and genetic analysis of PTPN11, he was diagnosed with JMML in the blast crisis phase. Although he had several poor prognostic factors, including monosomy 7 and high HbF percentage, he achieved partial remission after treatment with acute myeloid leukemia-oriented chemotherapy followed by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. He has been in complete remission for over 6 years.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Yoshitoshi Otsuka (Department of Pediatrics, Hyogo College of Medicine) for analyzing the hypersensitivity to GM-CSF by in vitro colony assay and Yoshihiro Mine (Kinki University Life Science Research Institute) for helping sequence analysis of PTPN11 gene.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Correspondence to Naoki Sakata.

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Ueda, S., Sakata, N., Muramatsu, H. et al. Clinical course of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia in the blast crisis phase treated by acute myeloid leukemia-oriented chemotherapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Int J Hematol 100, 502–506 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-014-1638-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-014-1638-3

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