[Acute lymphoblastic leukemia with marked morphologic abnormalities after chemotherapy for gastric cancer]

A 76-year-old man was admitted to our hospital in February, 1994 because of fever and general fatigue. The patient had received radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer in August, 1987 and was subsequently treated with adjuvant chemotherapy using UFT for 25 months. On admission, the leukocyte count was 57,700/microliters with 74% blasts. Bone marrow aspiration revealed proliferation of blasts with marked giant cells and polynucleolar cells. The diagnosis of T-lineage of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was then made by analysis of surface markers and T-cell receptor rearrangement. Although combination chemotherapy was initially effective, blasts rapidly reappeared in the peripheral blood, and the patient died of pneumonia in August, 1994. In the presented case, blasts showed marked morphologic abnormalities. It is well known that most cases of therapy-related leukemia deviate from the myeloid lineage, and rarely from the lymphoid lineage. In addition, morphologic abnormalities are rare in de novo ALL. Since such abnormalities were demonstrated in our patient, and UFT was administered for a long period, it is possible that this leukemia occurred as a second malignancy related to UFT treatment.