Acute kidney injury presenting a feature of leukemic infiltration during therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disease that originates in abnormal pluripotent bone marrow stem cells and it is consistently associated with the Philadelphia chromosome and/or BCR/ ABL fusion gene. Renal infiltration of leukemic cells is relatively rare in CML and is associated with renal impairment. We describe a patient who developed acute renal failure by tubulointerstitial nephropathy during treatment with imatinib mesylate for CML. The acute kidney injury was subsequently found to be due to direct leukemic infiltration. Treatment with hydroxycarbamide and prednisolone resulted in stabilization of the renal function for approximately 4 months. Leukemic infiltration into the kidney should always be considered when a patient with CML presents with renal impairment, regardless of the clinical stage, as the renal failure often responds well to chemotherapy.