Korean J Hematol.
1999 May;34(2):344-348.
A Case of B-Prolymphocytic Leukemia and Another Case of B-Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia/Prolymphocytic Leukemia
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Pohang St. Mary's Hospital1, Pohang, Korea.
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Yeung Nam University, Taegu, Korea.
Abstract
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Prolymphocytic leukemia (PL) is usually derived from B cells and shares some features with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but it is clearly a distinct entity and defined to have more than 55% prolymphocytes. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia/prolymphocytic leukemia (CLL/PL) is a mixed type of CLL and is defined to have 11~55% prolymphocytes with intermediate features between CLL and PL. We experienced two different cases of leukemia PL and CLL/PL. On physical examination, PL (stage II, B) patient showed multiple cervical lymph node enlargement and 5cm sized splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. But CLL/PL (stage III, C) patient showed 10cm sized splenomegaly and no lymph node enlargement. On immunological phenotyping, surface markers showed 72% CD5 (+), 85% CD19 (+), and 40% SmIg (+) in PL patient and 3% CD5 (+), 90% CD19 (+) and SmIg (-) in CLL/PL patient. PL patient was refractory to chlorambucil and prednisolone chemotherapy and showed poor prognosis. CLL/PL patient did not show remarkable response to chlorambucil and prednisolone therapy.