Erythroblastic transformation of chronic granulocytic leukemia

Erythroblastic transformation of chronic granulocytic leukemia was found in seven of 67 unselected patients with blast crisis. This morphologic picture of erythroblastic transformation was indistinguishable from that in erythroleukemia or Di Guglielmo's syndrome. The median survival of the patients with erythroblastic transformation was two months, considerably less than the four-month median survival in the entire series of 67 patients. Only two brief partial remissions were obtained with combination chemotherapy. The causes of death were primarily hemorrhage and infection, related to thrombocytopenia and neutropenia. In this regard, the patients with erythroblastic transformation resembled all the patients with blast crisis and patients with acute leukemia in general. The erythroblastic transformation seems to represent a morphologic variant of chronic granulocytic leukemia blast crisis, without apparent prognostic or therapeutic implications.