[Therapeutic effect of interferon-alpha on hairy cell leukemia]

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is characterized by slow proliferation of special mononuclear cells. Although splenectomy has been evaluated to be the most effective traditional treatment for HCL, the response of patients to splenectomy is not necessarily satisfactory. Recently, the treatment of HCL with Interferon-alpha has been reported to be effective, and we report a female case of HCL who showed marked improvement in her hematological findings with this therapy.