Leukemic reticuloendotheliosis: report of a case with peripheral blood remission on androgen therapy

Leukemic reticuloendotheliosis (LRE) has been generally considered to be poorly responsive to therapy other than splenectomy. The patient presented below developed a complete peripheral blood remission after prolonged therapy with an androgen (oxymetholone). There is very little published experience with androgen therapy in LRE. The experience with this patient suggests that androgens may produce a clinical remission by inducing significant improvement in the peripheral blood in some patients with this disease.