C. CATTANEO

C. G. VALENTINI

E. M. POGLIANI

G. LEONE

G. MARTINELLI

GIONA, Fiorina

L. MARBELLO

L. PAGANO

M. RONDONI

M. T. VAN LINT

PULSONI, Alessandro

English

Archivio della ricerca- Università di Roma La Sapienza

LETTER TO THE EDITORMast cell leukemia: a report of ten casesCaterina Giovanna Valentini & Michela Rondoni &Enrico Maria Pogliani & Maria Teresa Van Lint &Chiara Cattaneo & Laura Marbello &Alessandro Pulsoni & Fiorina Giona &Giovanni Martinelli & Giuseppe Leone & Livio PaganoReceived: 5 September 2007 /Accepted: 4 December 2007 /Published online: 3 January 2008# Springer-Verlag 2007Dear Editor,Systemic mastocytosis (SM) comprises a heterogeneousgroup of disorders characterized by proliferation andaccumulation of mast cells (MC) in one or more organs.Mast cell leukemia (MCL) is an extremely rare subtype ofSM defined by leukemic infiltration of bone marrow andother organs by atypical neoplastic MC, morphologicallycharacterized by cytoplasmic extensions, eccentric ovalnucleoli and hypogranulated cytoplasm, which couldexhibit a more immature blast-like morphology with nosigns of maturation, prominent nucleoli and fine nuclearchromatin. Flow cytometric analysis of neoplastic MCreveals detection of CD2 and/or CD25 antigen, CD117/kit,CD68 [1, 2]. This infiltration may lead to bone marrowmyelofibrosis with hemopoietic insufficiency, organ dis-function, bleeding and death after a median survival time of6–7 months [2, 3]. Diagnostic criteria for MCL correspondto that used for diagnosis of SM, but also include a highpercentage of bone marrow (≥20% of all nucleated cells)and circulating (≥10% of leukocytes) MC. According to theWHO consensus classification, cases of MCL with lessthan 10% circulating MC should be termed aleukemicvariant [4]. The prognosis of disease is severe: Mostpatients (pts) survive less than 1 year and respond poorlyto cytoreductive drugs or chemotherapy. A curative therapyis currently not available.Over the years 1995–2006, in collaboration with 17Italian hematological divisions, 36 cases of SM wereobserved: 13 aggressive SM, ten MCL, seven indolentSM and six SM with associated hematopoietic non-mastcell lineage disease, particularly one acute myeloid leuke-mia, three myeloproliferative disorders (one idiopathicmyelofibrosis, one polycythemia vera and one essentialthrombocytemia) and two low-grade B-cell lymphoma;however, we focused the attention only on the ten casesof MCL.All centres were asked to report data about epidemio-logical, clinical features, treatments and outcome of theircases of MCL. Diagnostic features included hematologicalparameters with morphological examination of peripheralblood smears, bone marrow aspirate and bone marrowbiopsy with an evaluation of MC infiltrate and immuno-phenotypic examinations of MC by flow cytometry.Furthermore, information about cytogenetic analysis, mo-lecular biology analysis for the presence of the c-kit pointAnn Hematol (2008) 87:505–508DOI 10.1007/s00277-007-0430-3C. G. Valentini (*) :G. Leone : L. PaganoIstituto di Ematologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore,Largo Francesco Vito, 1,00168 Rome, Italye-mail: giovannavalentini@libero.itM. Rondoni :G. MartinelliIstituto di Ematologia L. e A. Seragnoli, Università di Bologna,Bologna, ItalyE. M. PoglianiDivisione di Ematologia, Ospedale S. Gerardo,Monza, ItalyM. T. Van LintCentro Trapianti di Midollo, Ospedale S. Martino,Genova, ItalyC. CattaneoDivisione di Ematologia, Spedali Civili di Brescia,Brescia, ItalyL. MarbelloDivisione di Ematologia, Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda,Milan, ItalyA. Pulsoni : F. GionaIstituto di Ematologia, Università “La Sapienza”,Rome, Italymutation Asp-816-Val, clinical presentation of disease andpossible instrumental and histological examinations wererequested.The pts were diagnosed and classified according to theWHO criteria, and response to therapy has been judgedfollowing the proposed criteria by Valent et al [4, 5].Overall survival (OS) was measured from diagnosis todeath or last follow-up. The last follow-up was December2006. Kaplan–Meier method was used to analyze OS. Themain clinical and biological features of pts with thedifferent therapeutic approaches for each of them arereported in Tables 1 and 2.The median age of pts was 56 years (range 43–74); apreponderance of the female gender was noted (female tomale ratio 2.3:1). The percentage of circulating MC rangedfrom <1% to 31% of all leukocytes: In fact, three pts hadtypical MCL, while to the other seven, aleukemic MCL wasdiagnosed. Mild anemia was always present at diagnosis,and the hemoglobin concentration ranged from 8 to11.09 g/dl (median value 11.03 g/dl).Molecular biology studies were performed in eight often pts: six of eight (75%) showed the c-kit pointmutation D816V, only one pt had completely negativemolecular biology tests, while in another pt, a differentsilent c-kit mutation was found (C2415T). Cytogeneticanalysis of bone marrow cells resulted normal in all butone pt, in which karyotype abnormalities were recognized(del 5q).Extramedullary leukemic infiltrates are most frequentlydescribed in spleen, liver and lymph node, while pts withMCL usually lack skin lesions. Other organs that are rarelyinvolved included kidneys, lungs, heart, tonsils and gastricmucosa [2, 3, 6]. Our results are very close to thesereported in literature about involved organs but in ourpopulation, six pts had cutaneous lesions positive at biopsyfor MC skin infiltrations. At diagnosis, five pts hadsplenomegaly with a median spleen diameter value of16 cm (range 13–17); in two pts with ascites, liver biopsyrevealed diffuse fibrosis and periportal infiltrates of MC.One of these pts had also pulmonary bilateral nodules, soTable 1 Clinical and biological characteristics of ten patients with mast cell leukemiaCase Sex/Age(years)WBC(×109/l)HB(g/dl)PLTS(×109/l)PeripheralMC (% ofleukocytes)MCBM (%)c-kitMutationCytogeneticanalysisMCimmunophenotypeInvolved organ(other than BM)1 F/45 5.13 8 190 9 90 + NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25, CD117/kit,CD9, CD45, CD33,CD4, CD84Cardiovascularsystem, spleen2 M/74 12.80 11 67 8 88 n.s. 46 xy/46 xydel 5q-CD2, CD25 Spleen, liver, skin,lymph nodes3 F/43 3.00 8 33 19 50 + NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25, CD117/kit Cardiovascularsystem, spleen,liver, skeletalsystem4 F/56 8.50 11 185 17 90 + NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25, CD117/kit Cardiovascularsystem, skin,gastrointestinal tract5 F/55 12.00 11 184 31 90 − NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25 Spleen, skin,cardiovascularsystem6 F/62 10.00 10 210 2 70 + NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25 Cardiovascularsystem, spleen,liver,7 F/60 5.60 11 80 1 30 + NormalcaryotypeCD68, CD117/kit Cardiovascularsystem, liver, lymphnodes, spleen, skin8 F/62 5.40 8 158 9 30 n.s. NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25, CD117/kit Skin9 M/56 12.18 10 148 1 90 − NormalcaryotypeCD25, CD117/kit Cardiovascularsystem, liver,spleen, skeletalsystem10 M/56 6.09 10 27 1 40 + NormalcaryotypeCD2, CD25, CD117/kit Skin, skeletal systemMC Mast cells, BM bone marrow, n.s. not stated506 Ann Hematol (2008) 87:505–508Table 2 Symptoms and treatments of ten patients with mast cell leukemiaCase Symptoms/Signs Treatment SurvivalFirst line Outcome SecondlineOutcome Third line Outcome1 Headache, night sweats/Weight loss, flushing,syncope, tachycardia,splenomegalyImatinib NR 2-CdA TransientRP,progressionafter8 monthsAllogeneicHSCTCR Dead at23 monthsin CR foraccidentaltrauma2 Fatigue/Lymphoadenopathies,splenomegaly,hepatomegaly,cutaneous lesions2-CdA TransientPR,progressionafter7 monthsImatinib NR Alive at48 months3 Abdominal pain, fatigue,diarrhea, nausea/Weightloss, flushing, syncope,tachycardia,splenomegaly, fever,ascites, hepatomegaly,several radiographic lyticbone lesionsIdarubicin/CytosinearabinosideNR Dead at2 monthsforprogressionof disease4 Abdominal pain, fatigue,pruritus, nausea/Tachycardia, fever,peptic ulcer disease,cutaneous lesionsα-Interferon PR Alive at8 months5 Fatigue, pruritus/Weightloss, flushing,hypotensive shock,splenomegaly, cutaneouslesionsHydroxyurea NR Steroids PR Alive at22 months6 Abdominal pain, fatigue,diarrhea, nausea,pruritus, headache/Weight loss, hypotensiveshock, tachycardia,splenomegaly,hepatomegaly,Steroids NR Alive at3 months7 Headache, pruritus/Tachycardia, ascites,lymphoadenopathies,splenomegaly,hepatomegaly,cutaneous lesionsImatinib PR Alive at48 months8 Pruritus, headache,fatigue/Cutaneouslesionsα-Interferon NR Alive at98 months9 Pruritus/Flushing, ascites,splenomegaly,hepatomegaly,radiographic bonelesionsImatinib TransientPR,progressionafter3 monthsEtoposide/idarubicin/tioguanineNR Hydroxyurea PR,progressionafter19 monthsDead at29 monthsforprogressionof disease10 Bone pain, pruritus/Cutaneous lesions,radiographic bone lesionsand vertebral pathologicfractureα-Interferon NR Imatinib NR Alive at24 monthsCR Complete response, PR partial response, NR no responseAnn Hematol (2008) 87:505–508 507he underwent lung biopsy and broncoscopy with cytolog-ical exam of broncho-alveolar lavage fluid, which waspositive for the presence of 9.5% of cells morphologicallycompatible with MC (CD117+, CD11b+, CD33+, CD2+,CD25+). In two pts, radiographic studies revealed abdom-inal lymphoadenopathy, while in the other three skeletallesions were found.So far, a widely accepted therapy is not known for MCLbecause of the low number of pts and lack of suitablemodels of this disease.In our study, treatments were heterogeneous, and ptsreceived different lines of therapy for the failure of theprevious one: tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (Imatinib at dose of400 mg/day), α-Interferon (3 MU/day×3/week), 2-CdA(0.14 mg/kg), conventional cytoriductive treatments, steroidtherapy; one pt underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stemcell transplantation (allo-HSCT).As for the outcome, we reached poor results, and, in fact,we obtained only one complete response (CR) in the pt thatreceived allo-HSCT after the failure of the previous twolines of treatments. Regarding the other therapeutic ap-proach used, we obtained two partial responses (PR) amongpts treated with Imatinib (two of five), both of themnegative for c-kit D816V mutation, and other five PR afterother drugs (two with 2-CdA, one with α-Interferon, onesteroids and one Hydroxyurea, respectively). All these lastpts relapsed after a median period of 10 months (range 3–19). The pts resulted refractory to the other therapies.Two pts died for progression of disease, respectively, at2 and 29 months from diagnosis; another pt in CR ofdisease died for accidental causes at 23 months fromdiagnosis and seven from CR. In contrast to other reportedstudies in the literature [7] in which most pts survive lessthan 1 year, in our study seven pts were alive at the lastfollow-up, with a median OS of 24 months (range 3–98),but in all cases with active disease.Effective treatment is not yet available for pts with MCLthat show no response or little remissions to conventionalcytostatic drugs or aggressive polychemotherapy regimens,similar to those used to treat high-risk acute myeloidleukemia [2, 6, 7]. Furthermore, pts achieve only short-termremissions using interferon, steroid therapy or 2-CdA, andclinical studies showed failure of the tyrosine-kinaseinhibitor imatinib in pts with D816V c-kit mutation [8]. Ifa bone marrow donor is available, allo-HSCT may beconsidered as a possible therapeutic approach, and inresponse pts can be evaluated for the possibility ofcombining HSCT with target therapy, α-Interferon or otherexperimental drugs in conditioning or maintenance treat-ment [9]. However, more data are needed to find new andsuccessful therapeutic strategies.References1. Valent P, Horny H-P, Escribano L, Longley BJ, Li CY, Scwhartz LB,Marone G, Nunez R, Akin C, Sotlar K, Sperr WR, Wolff K,Brunning RD, Parwaresch RM, Austen KF, Lennert K,Metcalfe DD,Vardiman JW, Bennett JM (2001) Diagnostic criteria and classifica-tion of mastocytosis: a consensus proposal. Leuk Res 25:603–6252. Valent P, Akin C, Sperr WR, Horny HP, Arock M, Lechner K,Bennett JM, Metcalfe DD (2003) Diagnosis and treatment ofsystemic mastocytosis: state of the art. Br J Haematol 122:695–7173. Horny HP, Sotlar K, Valent P (2007) Mastocytosis: state of the art.Pathobiology 74(2):121–1324. Valent P, HornyHP, Li CY, Longley JB,Metcalfe DD, Parwaresch RM,Bennett J (2001) Mastocytosis (mast cell disease). In: Jaffe ES, HarrisNL, Stein H, Vardman J (eds) World Health Organization (WHO)classification of tumours. Pathology and genetics. Tumours ofhaematopoietic and lymphoid tissue 1. WHO, Geneva, pp 291–3025. Valent P, Akin C, Sperr WR, Escribano L, Arock M, Horny HP,Bennet JM, Metcalfe DD (2003) Aggressive systemic mastocytosisand related mast cell disorders: current treatment options andproposed response criteria. Leuk Res 27:635–6416. Noack F, Sotlar K, Notter M, Thiel E, Valent P, Horny HP (2004)Aleukemic mast cell leukemia with abnormal immunophenotypeand c-kit mutation D816V. Leuk Lymphoma 45(11):2295–23027. Hennessy B, Giles F, Cortes J, O’brien S, Ferrajoli A, Ossa G,Garcia-Manero G, Faderl S, Kantarjian H, Verstovsek S (2004)Management of patients with systemic mastocytosis: review of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center experience. Am J Hematol 77:209–2148. Pardanani A, Elliott M, Reeder T, Li CY, Baxter EJ, Cross NC,Tefferi A (2003) Imatinib for systemic mast-cell disease. Lancet362(9383):535–5369. Spyridonidis A, Thomas AK, Bertz H, Zeiser R, Schimitt-Graff A,Lindemann A, Waller CF, Finke J (2004) Evidence for a graft-versus-mast-cell effect after allogeneic bone marrow transplanta-tion. Bone Marrow Transplant 34(6):515–519508 Ann Hematol (2008) 87:505–508

Mast cell leukemia: a report of ten cases.

https://iris.uniroma1.it/bitstream/11573/117915/1/Mastocitosi2008.pdf

Mast cell leukemia: a report of ten cases.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Archivio della ricerca- Università di Roma La Sapienza