Pelvic and ovarian extramedullary leukemic relapse in young girls: a report of four cases and review of the literature.

Abstract

Currently attention is focused on the testicle as a site of leukemic relapse. Leukemic involvement of the ovary has been described in several autopsy series with an incidence of 11-50% in patients with bone marrow relapse, but has rarely been reported during the clinical course of leukemia. In this report, four girls with childhood acute lymphocyte leukemia (ALL) who relapsed with a pelvic mass are presented. Three had marked ovarian infiltrates and the fourth had a presacral mass without ovarian disease. Involvement was also present in abdominal and pelvic lymph nodes, mesentery, omentum, and serosal surfaces. Two patients had infiltrates of the fallopian tubes and one had uterine involvement. Two patients had central nervous system disease and one patient has renal involvement at the time of relapse. Relapse occurred late in the course of disease. All patients had been in complete continuous remission prior to relapse. Retreatment was instituted in all patients and follow-up ranges from 18-135 months from the time of pelvic relapse. All patients have maintained continuous bone marrow remission from the time of initial diagnosis, and one patient died 18 months after ovarian relapse with significant extramedullary disease but no marrow involvement. This represents the first series of pelvic extramedullary leukemic relapse in females, an area of involvement that may be encountered more frequently in the future.