Primary splenic hairy cell leukemia--remission for 21 years following splenectomy.

A patient with primary splenic hairy cell leukemia is reported. This patient presented with massive splenomegaly and pancytopenia due to hypersplenism. Exploratory laparotomy failed to demonstrate any disease outside the spleen and splenic hilar lymph nodes. Splenectomy was the only form of treatment. During the following 21 years, no recurrent hairy cell leukemia has been found. This case allows speculation that hairy cell leukemia may originate in the spleen and that prolonged survival or cure of the disease after splenectomy alone may be due to removal of stem cells in the spleen.