Therapy-related chronic myelogenous leukaemia following autologous stem cell transplantation for Ewing's sarcoma

A 17-year-old Japanese woman with Ewing's sarcoma was initially treated with conventional chemotherapy and local irradiation, and then with high-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Four years later she was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML). The BCR/ABL fusion gene was detected in both peripheral blood and bone marrow cells by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, but not in the harvest product of peripheral blood stem cells which were infused at the time of transplantation. This case adds to the accumulating evidence of therapy-related CML developing after high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation.