[Cataracts in a patient treated with busulfan (Mablin powder) for eight years]

Busulfan (Mablin powder) has been used in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia for a long time. Although cataract is known to be an ocular side effect of prolonged Busulfan therapy, it has rarely been reported, especially in Japan. This report describes mature cataracts in a 59-year-old woman with chronic myelogenous leukemia, who had received a total dose of 2,249.7 mg Busulfan over eight years. In our department, the average age at the time of senile cataract operation was 72 years in men and 73.4 years in women during the past five years, so this patient was younger than the average senile cataract patient. A review of case reports, including the present one, suggests that Busulfan cataract characteristically develops rapidly in both eyes of young patients treated with a total dose of over 2,000 mg of Busulfan for more than four years. Busulfan cataracts have rarely been reported probably because cataract is regarded as senile and patients treated with Busulfan usually die before cataract appears.