Therapy-related leukemia cutis: case study of an aggressive disorder

Therapy-related leukemia cutis has not yet been described. We report a 55-year-old male who developed aleukemic leukemia cutis 15 months after chemotherapy and radiotherapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Despite intensive therapy including allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the patient died of progressive disease. Sequence analysis of the TP53 gene and screening for defective DNA mismatch repair revealed no abnormalities. This case demonstrates that therapy-related aleukemic leukemia cutis is an aggressive disorder resistant to conventional antineoplastic treatment approaches. As the number of patients developing therapy-related myelodysplasia or leukemia is increasing, clinicians might be confronted more frequently with atypical, extramedullary presentations of these disorders.