Acute myeloid leukemia and other myelopathic disorders following treatment with alkylating agents

Several large cohorts of patients treated with alkylating agents served as a means to review the clinical and pathologic features of 55 cases of myelopathic disorders that resulted. The incidence was 1.8% overall and consisted of five patients (9.9%) who developed bone marrow hypoplasia or aplasia, 15 (27.2%) who developed a myelodysplastic syndrome, and 35 cases of acute myeloid leukemia (62.9%). The median time to recognition of MPD was 14 months, following cessation of chemotherapy. The distribution of the treatment-related MDS cases was different than "de novo" MDS with a high percentage of RAEB-T, and with the treatment related AMLs, there were a higher percentage of patients with FAB M6 (erythroleukemia), and no cases of FAB M3 (hypergranular promyelocytic). The median survival of all patients was very brief.