Pancreatic pseudocyst complicating treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

In the management of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, L-asparaginase has become established as an effective drug in the usual multi-agent therapy; and the significance of pancreatitis as a complication of this drug is well recognized. Less well appreciated, however, is the progression of such pancreatitis in some patients to pseudocyst formation and the possible necessity for surgical management. Two adolescent girls who developed pancreatic pseudocysts while being treated with L-asparaginase are described in this report. Both were being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia for periods of 18 and 4 months, respectively, prior to the onset of pancreatitis. Both were in remission of their leukemic disease when typical clinical and laboratory manifestations of acute pancreatitis developed. In one girl, a pancreatic pseudocyst became apparent 2 weeks following the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis and in the other girl, this complication developed over a period of 8 weeks. The usual nonsurgical management of pancreatitis over protracted periods of time was ineffective in the treatment of the pseudocysts. Surgical drainage (internal in one and external in the other) was successful in both in eradicating the pseudocyst, and in neither did further evidence of pancreatic disease subsequently occur. In both resumption of chemotherapy, omitting L-asparaginase, was well tolerated. One has been in remission of leukemia and in good health for a 3-year period of follow-up observation, while the other subsequently had a relapse of leukemia and died 18 months following the onset of pancreatitis.