DOES COVID-19 INCREASE YOUR RISK OF DEVELOPING HAIRY CELL LEUKEMIA?

ABSTRACT

SESSION TITLE Pathology Identifying Chest Infections Case Report Posters SESSION TYPE Case Report Posters PRESENTED ON 10/17/2022 1215 pm - 0115 pm INTRODUCTION: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients presented in a wide variety and had multiple complications. The well-known associations found are myocardial infraction, pulmonary embolism, meningitis, encephalitis. We are presenting a new diagnosis of Hairy cell leukemia in COVID 19 patients. CASE PRESENTATION We present a 55-year-old pleasant female with no significant past medical history;non immunocompromised who presented with 7 days history of shortness of breath on exertion, fever, fatigue, and cough. Her physical exam was unremarkable, but she was desaturating on presentation hence was placed on oxygen via nasal canula. On work up she tested positive for COVID-19. Initial chest Xray revealed bilateral diffuse pulmonary infiltrates. Complete blood count (CBC) showed pancytopenia with white blood cell count (WBC) 0.8 × 103/μL (4–10 × 103/μL), absolute neutrophil count (ANC) 0.5 × 103/μL (2–7 × 103/μL), hemoglobin (Hgb) 10.4 g/dL (13.0–17.0 g/dL), and platelet count 156× 103/μL (150–400 × 103/μL). She received treatment for COVID 19 pneumonia as per the protocol. On repeat CBC check there was minimal improvement in her counts. The rest of her WBC differential showed a lymphopenia with ALC ranging from 350–500 with no other obvious immature cells or blasts to suggest a myeloid neoplasm such as acute leukemia. Work-up including vitamin B12, folate, TSH, EBV, ANA, and hepatitis were unremarkable. She also received treatment with supportive granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) but there was minimal improvement. As her pancytopenia persisted for 1 week the peripheral blood smear was done which showed pancytopenia (with prominent red cell agglutination, with rare, atypical lymphoid cells with multiple hairy projections. A bone marrow (BM) aspirate was hypocellular showing markedly decreased trilineage hematopoiesis with atypical lymphoid cells with oval or indented nuclear borders, unclumped chromatin, absent or inconspicuous nucleoli, and moderate to abundant pale blue cytoplasm with multiple circumferential cytoplasmic projections (hairy cells) [Figure1]. The hairy cells showed strong positivity for CD20[Figure2]. She was followed up by hematology and was started on treatment. DISCUSSION: Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare B cell lymphoproliferative disease with marked cytopenia and circulating leukemia cells. Multiple viruses (EBV, HTLV1) were found to be associated with multiple different malignancies. It is found that COVID19 is not associated with any malignancy so far, but our patient got diagnosed with HCL during COVID19 illness. CONCLUSIONS: The association of HCL could be an incidental finding but we need to do further studies to clarify the associations Reference #1 Kohla, Samah et al. "A Rare Case of Hairy Cell Leukemia with Unusual Loss of CD123 Associated with COVID-19 at the Time of Presentation.” Case reports in oncology vol. 13,3 1430-1440. 4 Dec. 2020, doi10.1159/000512830 DISCLOSURES No relevant relationships by Apurwa Karki No relevant relationships by Shobha Mandal No relevant relationships by Rajamurugan Meenakshisundaram