Restoration of active haemopoiesis in a patient with myelofibrosis and subsequent termination in acute myeloblastic leukaemia: case report and review of the literature.

A patient with polycythaemia vera developed typical myelofibrosis after 15 yr. After a further 8 months, during which time she was pancytopenic and transfusion-dependent, a slow spontaneous recovery in haemopoiesis occurred and the full blood count became normal. 6 months later pancytopenia recurred and soon afterwards the patient developed acute myeloblastic leukaemia from which she died. The evolution of bone marrow morphology and isotopic studies. Only 2 previous reports of this kind of transformation exist in the literature, although restoration of normal or polycythaemic haemopoiesis has been reported in 8 patients with myelofibrosis. It is likely that these transformations occur because of alterations in stem cell behaviour rather than as a result of therapy.