[Successful treatment of combined interferon-alpha and hydroxycarbamide for chronic myelogenous leukemia following therapy for malignant lymphoma].

A 57-year-old woman was diagnosed as having non-Hodgkin lymphoma (follicular mixed cell, B-cell type, Stage III) in February 1988. Since then, she had been treated with radiation and chemotherapy contained with alkylating agents and etoposide for 6 years. In April 1994, peripheral blood study disclosed leukocytosis with basophilia and thrombocytosis. Bone marrow was hypercellular. The karyotype of bone marrow cells was 46, XX, t(9:22) (q34:q11). Rearrangement of bcr was detected in bone marrow, but not in lymph node cells. On the basis of these findings, she was diagnosed as having the chronic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) following the therapy for malignant lymphoma and treated with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) and hydroxycarbamide. Following this therapy, the lymphoadenopathy promptly disappeared and chromosome analysis showed disappearance of Ph chromosome positive cells. Although CML is rare in secondary leukemia, the present case seemed therapy-related CML and the treatment with IFN-alpha and hydroxycarbamide was effective for both CML and malignant lymphoma.