Chronic granulocytic leukaemia in pregnancy

In an era when the use of ionizing radiations for the treatment of chronic granulocytic leukaemia has largely been supplanted by therapy with busulphan or other drugs, there still exist situations where irradiation is the preferred method of initial treatment. One such situation is the unusual conjunction of chronic granulocytic leukaemia and pregnancy. Chronic granulocytic leukaemia (CGL) was diagnosed in two young women during early pregnancy as a result of routine blood examinations. Both responded satisfactorily to splenic irradiation with shielding of the uterus. The pregnancies proceeded uneventfully and each was successfully delivered of a normal and subsequently healthy baby. Both mothers later underwent elective splenectomy during a period of satisfactory haematological control: no operative or post-operative complications occurred. Although both patients have shown some thrombocytosis and peripheral blood basophilia since splenectomy, they remain well 58 and 28 months after diagnosis and 30 and 18 months after splenectomy.