Low levels of plasma stem-cell factor in a patient with cyclic neutropenia

✍ Scribed by Shinohara, Kenji; Ariyoshi, Kouichi; Takeda, Koumei; Kameda, Naoko; Ruirong, Xu

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 67 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0361-8609
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-8652(199705)55:1<50::aid-ajh11>3.0.co;2-a

✦ Synopsis

nosis, in contrast to RHS associated with peripheral T-cell lymphoma, in which RHS may be a terminal event after a stable course for variable periods [2]. In previous studies of a total of 55 Hodgkin's disease patients with marrow involvement, prominent hemophagocytic histocytosis were not described [5,6].

Although our patient has stage IV Hodgkin's disease, its focal involvement could not explain the profound pancytopenia. Moreover, a previous study [5] of 36 marrow-positive Hodgkin's disease patients showed most to have normal blood counts. Moreover, in another study of Hodgkin's disease with marrow involvement [6], when combination chemotherapy (MOPP) was given to the patients with initial leukopenia, severe leukopenia occurred, with 42.8% developing life-threatening infections. In our patient, despite the severe initial neutropenia, the leukocyte count actually rose, instead of dropping, during the initial phase of induction chemotherapy (Fig. 2), and our patient tolerated the chemotherapy very well without complications. Although marrow-positive Hodgkin's disease with non-RHS leukopenia was reported to have a poor prognosis due to a low remission rate [6], our patient illustrated that RHS-associated leukopenia in Hodgkin's disease could respond favourably to chemotherapy.