Abstract
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the most common malignancy in paediatric patients; its diagnosis is usually easy to establish as malignant lymphoblasts invade the bone marrow and peripheral blood. Patients with Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) may initially present with pancytopenia and a hypoplastic or hyperplastic bone marrow. Fever is common at presentation, and despite neutropenia, sepsis is rarely seen. Other common clinical manifestations include fatigue, pallor, petechiae, bleeding, lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly. Presentation with primarily testicular disease is exceedingly rare in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The unusual presentation of a primary left testicular involvement in ALL is being highlighted in this case report. We present an 11 year old boy who presented with fever, generalized body pain, abdominal discomfort as well as left testicular swelling. Bone marrow studies, Full blood count and peripheral blood film appearance were typical of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Ultrasound findings showed left scrotal enlargement with reduced and coarse parenchymal echotexture, while cytogenetic studies revealed positive Philadelphia chromosomes. There was good response to standard ALL therapy. Clinical remission with normal left testicular size was noted at the end of induction phase of therapy.
Highlights
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of malignancy in pediatric patients
In the most recent WHO classification of hematological malignancies, precursor lymphoid neoplasms are divided into two broad categories based on cell lineage: B lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B-ALL/B-LBL) and T lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (T-ALL/T-LBL) [2]
B-ALL is a neoplasm of precursor cells committed to the B-cell lineage, (B-lymphoblasts) involving bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB), which is the most typical presentation
Summary
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of malignancy in pediatric patients. Its diagnosis is usually easy to establish as malignant lymphoblasts invade the bone marrow and peripheral blood. Patients with acute lymphoblastic may initially present with pancytopenia and a hypoplastic or hyperplastic bone marrow. B-ALL is a neoplasm of precursor cells committed to the B-cell lineage, (B-lymphoblasts) involving bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB), which is the most typical presentation. B-LBL is confined to a mass lesion with no or minimal evidence of peripheral blood and bone marrow involvement. Diagnosis and classification of leukemias are based on bone marrow examination to determine the immunophenotype (lineage) and cytogenetic/molecular abnormalities [4]. Fever is commonly noted at presentation, with other clinical manifestations which may include fatigue, palor, petechiae, bleeding, lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly [3]
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