Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in two patients with beta-Thalassemia major

ABSTRACT

Occurrence of leukemia in thalassemia major is a rare presentation. Here we report two cases of thalassemic patients, developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The genetic analysis revealed that, female and male patients were homozygous for IVSI-6 and IVSI-5, respectively. Two years ago the female patient presented by a high leukocyte count [154,000 micro L] and male one also presented by 80,000 WBC/micro L count 1 year ago. Microscopic examination of both patients revealed lymphoblasts that morphologically accommodate with ALL-L1 that were confirmed by photocytometry