Acute myeloblastic leukemia development in a patient with small cell lung cancer in complete remission

Abstract

A 67 year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of cough and sputum. He smoke one pack of cigarettes a day for more than twenty years and the chest X-ray film revealed a mass in the left hilum and left sided pleural effusion. The diagnosis of small carcinoma of the lung (limited disease, T4N1MO, stage 3B) was made by trans-bronchial lung biopsy and radiographic studies. Both chemotherapy (nimustine (ACNU), cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and methotrexate) and radiation therapy was started, however, the chemotherapy was discontinued in July 1987 because of severe anemia. The diagnosis of refractory anemia with excess of blasts in transformation (RAEB in T) was made by bone marrow aspiration and the patient was treated by transfusion (400-800 ml/week). In December 1987 transition to acute myeloblastic leukemia was confirmed by another bone marrow aspiration biopsy and the patient was given low dose cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C). The response was favorable in the beginning but in about two months pancytopenia became refractory and the patient died in June 1988. Clinically there was no sign of local or distal recurrences of lung cancer, and the complete remission of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) was confirmed by autopsy. Survival in SCLC remains poor, so that the choice of treatment is still the primary concern, however, development of other malignancies which include acute leukemia is another problem which should be taken into account when the treatment is extensive.