[Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and solid neoplasms: is it a causal or a fortuitous association?]

Out of a series of 36 patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML), five cases are reported with the association of this hemopathy to solid neoplasms. In two patients this last was a cutaneous tumour, while the remainders had, respectively, papilloma of the bladder, carcinoma of the sigma, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. These neoplasms were diagnosed in all cases prior to the discovery of CMML. When applying the "patient/year" method, significantly higher frequency of solid tumours was found for CMML patients, which would support the hypothesis that this myelodysplasia could be regarded as a paraneoplastic condition.