Secondary leukemia following successful treatment of Wilms' tumor

Leukemia accounts for 15-20% of the secondary malignancies among survivors of Wilms' tumor. We report three patients who developed leukemia after the successful treatment of Wilms' tumor, each of whom demonstrates the importance of close long-term medical surveillance. The first patient developed Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) 6 years after the diagnosis of Wilms' tumor. This is the second report of CML occurring after Wilms' tumor. The other two patients developed acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) 3 and 18 years after successful treatment of Wilms' tumor. In one patient, the clinical manifestations were subtle, and in the other the latency period was the longest reported for secondary leukemia following Wilms' tumor. We conclude that survivors of childhood cancer require frequent medical surveillance even in their adult years.