Spontaneous remission of acute myeloid leukemia associated with GnRH agonist treatment.

Spontaneous remission of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults is a rare but well documented phenomenon. This study reports on a 64-year-old male patient with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML-M4, according to the French-American-British classification) that was developed on a background of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and then underwent remission after treatment with the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH agonist) triptorelin for presumed prostate cancer. Remission persisted for at least 4 years before the patient was lost to follow-up. To the author' knowledge, this is the first report of remission in an AML-M4 case associated with hormone manipulation. Possible mechanisms of this phenomenon are discussed.

Non-gastric extra-nodal marginal zone lymphomas--a single centre experience on 76 patients.

In the present study, we assessed the clinical and pathological data of 76 patients with the diagnosis of non-gastric extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma. The most commonly affected sites were salivary glands, skin, ocular adnexa, lung, intestine and Waldeyer's ring. Ann Arbor stage I disease was present in 39 patients (51%), stage II in 10 (13%) and stage IV in 27 (36%). In 17 cases (21%), the lymphoma presented at multiple mucosal sites. Lymph node and bone marrow involvement were present in 21% and 16%, respectively. Most cases were in the low or low-intermediate risk group. Treatment was heterogeneous and included chlorambucil in 59% either alone or in combination with other agents. Complete and partial remission was achieved in 79% and 7%, respectively, with an overall response rate of 86%. The 5- and 10-year overall survival and cause-specific survival rates were 94%, 82% and 95%, 91%, respectively. The 5- and 10-year progression free survival was 56% and 41%, respectively. The only feature associated with inferior outcome was disease localisation to the lung.