[Acute promyelocytic leukemia with central nervous system leukemia--a report of two cases]

Two cases of promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with central nervous system leukemia (CNS-L) are reported. The first case displayed some symptoms similar to meningitis at onset, and the second case, during induction therapy suddenly developed left hemiplegia and was found to have CNS-L. There have been only a few case reports of APL associated with CNS-L and each has said that APL was rarely accompanied by CNS-L. Yet, of the reports registered with the Joint Committee for Hematologic neoplasm in Japan, the incidence of APL with CNS-L is not much lower than any of the other types of acute non-lymphocytic leukemia that can accompany a CNS-L. There fore, we feel that CNS-L should not be overlooked as an important prognostic consideration in APL cases.