Evolution of severe aplastic anemia to myelodysplasia with monosomy 7 following granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, erythropoietin and high-dose methylprednisolone combination therapy.

A 19-year-old man was diagnosed as having severe aplastic anemia and received high-dose methylprednisolone treatment without hematological response. A second course of high-dose mPSL treatment together with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) plus erythropoietin (EPO) was then started and resulted in trilineage blood cell response. Ten months after the combination therapy thrombocytopenia developed and cytogenetic analysis showed 45,XX,-7, indicating an evolution to myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) associated with monosomy 7.G-CSF and EPO treatment together with immunosuppression may be an effective therapy in SAA patients, but such a therapy may increase the risk of evolution to MDS.