Case report

Adult B lymphoblastic leukaemia/lymphoma with hypodiploidy (-9) and a novel chromosomal translocation t(7;12)(q22;p13) presenting with severe eosinophilia – case report and review of literature

Farhat A Bhatti^*, Iftikhar Hussain and Muhammad Z Ali

• * Corresponding author: Farhat A Bhatti farhatab@hotmail.com

Author Affiliations

Department of Haematology, PNS Shifa Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

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Journal of Hematology & Oncology 2009, 2:26 doi:10.1186/1756-8722-2-26

Published: 21 June 2009

Abstract

Patients suffering from adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia are acutely ill and present most commonly with fever, pallor, bleeding, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly and presence of lymphoblasts in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. We describe a rare presentation of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, in a young adult male who had vague and minimal symptoms with mild splenomegaly. There was severe eosinophilia along with absence of blasts in the peripheral blood, and 40% blasts with increase in eosinophils in the bone marrow. The blasts were positive for common precursor B cell markers on flow cytometry. The patient had a unique cytogenetic abnormality t(7;12)(q22;p13),-9, not previously described in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He was categorized as poor risk due to failure to achieve complete remission after induction with UK ALL XII chemotherapy.