Chronic myelogenous leukemia and Sweet syndrome

We report a 64-year-old woman with chronic myelogenous leukemia of 3 years duration who developed Sweet syndrome. Improvement in her blood counts after hydroxyurea was not associated with a decrease in size of the skin lesions. However, the cutaneous lesions of Sweet syndrome quickly resolved with systemic prednisone. Sweet syndrome has only been documented in the literature for five other chronic myelogenous leukemia patients. The characteristics, treatment, and differential diagnosis of this disorder in chronic myelogenous leukemia patients are reviewed.