Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter to the Editor
  • Published:

Two cases of hypereosinophilia and high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Leukemia volume 22, pages 1463–1465 (2008)Cite this article

Two patients in a cohort of 391 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) presented with symptomatic eosinophilia. Both patients had a very poor molecular response to initial chemotherapy as assessed by real-time PCR measurement of minimal residual disease (MRD) and were stratified accordingly to the high-risk group to receive more intensive chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. One has subsequently relapsed and the hypereosinophilia, which also recurred, was of donor cell origin. The coincidence of two ALL patients with high MRD and hypereosinophilia warranted a review of the literature and a description of their case histories.

Both patients are girls who enrolled on the Australian and New Zealand Children's Haematology and Oncology Group (ANZCHOG) Phase III clinical trial for children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia—ANZCHOG Study VIII. In this ongoing trial, 8% of the patients to date have been stratified on the basis of MRD into the high-risk group using the same criteria (MRD>5 × 10−4) as the AIEOP–BFM ALL 2000 trial.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

References

  1. Choi S, Henderson MJ, Kwan E, Beesley AH, Sutton R, Bahar AY et al. Relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia involving selection of a preexisting drug-resistant subclone. Blood 2007; 110: 632–639.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. van der Velden VHJ, Cazzaniga G, Schrauder A, Hancock J, Bader P, Panzer-Grumayer R et al. Analysis of minimal residual disease by Ig/TCR gene rearrangements: guidelines for interpretation of real-time quantitative data. Leukemia 2007; 21: 604–611.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Grimaldi JC, Meeker TC . The t(5;14) chromosomal translocation in a case of acute lymphocytic leukemia joins the interleukin-3 gene to the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene. Blood 1989; 73: 2081–2085.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Nunez CA, Zipf TF, Roberts WM, Medeiros LJ, Hayes K, Bueso-Ramos CE . Molecular monitoring of cerebrospinal fluid can predict clinical relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukemia with eosinophilia. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2003; 127: 601–605.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Bjerregaard LL, Rosthooj S . Vertebral compression and eosinophilia in a child with acute lymphatic leukemia. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2002; 24: 313–315.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Utsunomiya A, Ishida T, Inagaki A, Ishii T, Yano H, Komatsu H et al. Clinical significance of a blood eosinophilia in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: a blood eosinophilia is a significant unfavorable prognostic factor. Leuk Res 2007; 31: 915–920.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

MRD testing is funded by the NH&MRC, Cancer Council of NSW and Leukaemia Foundation and supported by the ANZCHOG Study 8 committee especially Dr Luciano Dalla Pozza. Standardization and quality control for MRD testing is supported by the ESG-MRD-ALL.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, University of NSW, Sydney, Australia

    R Sutton, N C Venn, M Haber & M D Norris

  2. John Hunter Children's Hospital, Newcastle, Australia

    M Lonergan & F Alvaro

  3. Women and Children's Hospital, Adelaide, Australia

    H Tapp & T Revesz

  4. Centre for Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders, Sydney Children's Hospital, Sydney, Australia

    T A O'Brien

Authors
  1. R Sutton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M Lonergan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. H Tapp
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. N C Venn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M Haber
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. M D Norris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. T A O'Brien
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. F Alvaro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. T Revesz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R Sutton.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Leukemia website (http://www.nature.com/leu)

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sutton, R., Lonergan, M., Tapp, H. et al. Two cases of hypereosinophilia and high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 22, 1463–1465 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2405096

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2405096

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links