CLINICO-PATHOLOGICAL PRESENTATION AND THERAPEUTIC OPTIONS FOR HAIRY CELL LEUKEMIA

Objective: to look at clinical and hematological presentation as well as treatment outcome of patients withdiagnosis of hairy cell leukemia (hcl) in our population.methodology: all patients diagnosed with hcl by morphological and immunohistochemical methodspresenting to medical oncology ward at hayatabad medical complex, peshawar since august 2008 wereincluded in the study.results: out of 7 patients diagnosed with hcl, 6 were male and 1 was female (m:f ratio 6:1). medianage at diagnosis was 44 years. fever, pallor, palpitations and fatigue were the commonest presentingcomplaints. spleenomegaly was noted in all patients (100%). pancytopenia was noted in all patients atpresentation. five patients were treated with interferon while 2 were treated with cladribine. at 18 monthsof follow-up, one out five patients treated with ifn had relapse while both the patients treated withcladribine were in complete remission.conclusion: our study showed that hcl patients present at a younger age in our region but furtherstudies with larger sample size are required to confirm this. all patients showed a complete response tointerferon and cladribine with all patients alive at 18 months of follow-up.