Chronic myeloid leukemia with isolated central nervous system blast crisis a rare case presentation

Abstract

Most cases of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) manifest in chronic phase with high granulocyte count. Medical management with imatinib renders complete hematological and cytogenetic remission in almost all patients. Only 5%–10% of the patients progress to accelerated phase and terminal phase, i.e., blast crisis. Blast crisis is defined as the presence of ≥20% blasts in the bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood, or a large focus of blasts in the BM, or presence of extramedullary infiltration with blast cells. The penetration of imatinib in the central nervous system (CNS) is very poor, and thus, CNS may become a sanctuary site in patients on prolonged treatment with imatinib. The CNS as a site of extramedullary crisis is extremely rare. We report a case of Philadelphia-positive CML on imatinib with cerebrospinal fluid cytology positive and approach to its management.