Treatment of therapy-induced preleukemic syndrome

Two young adult patients with therapy-induced preleukemic syndrome and Hodgkin's disease as primary malignancy were treated with aggressive antileukemic regimens before the establishment of leukemic conversion. Pretreatment clinical staging procedures did not reveal recurrence of Hodgkin's disease. One of the regimens consisted of an HLA-identical allogeneic bone marrow transplant and the other of high dose cytosine arabinoside. Both therapeutic approaches have proved successful in restoring normal hematopoiesis with reversal to normal karyotypes and unmaintained remissions 556 and 192 days post-treatment. The rationale for such a therapeutic approach in the preleukemic stage of therapy-induced leukemogenesis is discussed.