Sciatica in CGL: a sign of transformation

Six patients are presented with chronic granulocytic leukaemia in whom sciatica and back pain developed. Within a few months of the onset of the symptoms other manifestations of acceleration of the disease became manifest and all patients subsequently died. Radiological evidence of bony infiltration was noted in two patients and post-mortem evidence of infiltration in a further two patients and it is suggested that the development of sciatica may herald the terminal stage of the disease.