[Hairy cell leukemia: study of the development of 211 cases]

Large series of patients with hairy cell leukaemia have only recently been published. The 211 cases reported here provide useful information on the clinical presentation, prognostic factors, evolution and management of this uncommon disease. At presentation, 28% of the patients had no spleen enlargement, and only 20% had severe pancytopenia. However, severe neutropenia (less than 0.5 X 10(9)/l) was present in 32% of the cases. Prognosis was primarily related to the degree of peripheral cytopenia, usually corrected by splenectomy, but it was poor in both non-splenomegalic and splenectomized patients with persistent anaemia and neutropenia, and it is in these patients that other treatments should be tested.