Abstract • 107

Hydroxyurea (HU) is the first oral drug, which has an impact on the severity of sickle cell anemia in adult patients. However, limited data are available for childhood. There are questions about the safety of this cytotoxic drug in a nonmalignant condition as the sickle cell anemia.

We present the case of a child with sickle cell anemia who developed Hodgkin's disease while he was on treatment with HU.

Case report: A boy 7 years old, with sickle cell anemia presented frequent painful crises and prolonged hospitalization. In order to reduce the painful events and the duration of hospitalization, it was decided to receive HU in a dose of 15 mg/kg/d which was gradually increased to 20 mg/kg/d. There was only a slight improvement of his clinical symptoms. Five months after the initiation of the HU-treatment, the patient presented enlargement of cervical and mediastinal lymph nodes. The histological examination revealed Hodgkin's disease, subtype of lymphocyte predominance. He received chemotherapy according to ABVD protocol for six months. During chemotherapy the patient was free of symptoms of sickle cell anemia. Nowadays, two years later, he is in remission for Hodgkin's disease but he has painful crises again.

Summary: The use of HU as treatment is sickle cell anemia may improve the clinical course of the disease but long-term studies are required to answer the question of leukemogenic and ongogenic potential of HU.