Chronic Myeloid Leukemia During Pregnancy with Placental Involvement: Case Report and Literature Review.

Introduction: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) occurrence during pregnancy is unusual due to the low prevalence of the disease in women of childbearing age, with only three reported cases. Case report: The mother was diagnosed with CML with positive BCR-ABL gene fusion in her 32nd week of gestation. The placenta showed an increased population of myelocytes and segmented neutrophils in the intervillous space and features of maternal villous malperfusion (increased perivillous fibrinoid material and distal villous hypoplasia). The mother underwent leukapheresis and delivered the neonate at 33 wk gestation. The neonate demonstrated neither leukemia nor other pathology. The mother is in remission after four years of follow-up. Conclusion: Leukapheresis was performed safely during pregnancy and provided a safe management strategy until the delivery one week later.

Recurrent arthritis as an unexpected side effect associated with azacitidine in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome.

INTRODUCTION: Hypomethylating agents have confirmed efficacy for myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia and are widely used. Although arthralgia is common side effect associated with hypomethylating agents, arthritis has not been reported previously. CASE REPORT: We present the first recorded patient with arthritis after azacitidine treatment. The patient we presented here had severe cytopenias requiring transfusion with erythrocyte and platelet suspensions, and a complete hematological response was obtained for myelodysplastic syndrome after three cycles of azacitidine (AZA) treatment. However, interestingly, after each AZA treatment cycle, the patient had recurrent attacks of arthritis. MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOMES: The episodes of arthritis were possibly acute flares of pre-existing crystal-induced arthritis, as exhibited with azacitidine treatments and were managed effectively with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. DISCUSSION: Because it is a rare condition, clinicians should not overlook AZA as a possible cause of arthritis exacerbations when arthritis of unknown etiology develops in patients treated with AZA.

Cholesterol granuloma mimicking ovarian cancer.

Cholesterol granuloma is a consequence of a chronic inflammatory reaction with accumulation of cholesterol crystals in the tissue. Ovarian cholesterol granuloma is rarely reported in the literature and can be misdiagnosed as ovarian cancer during surgery due to pelvic fibrosis and adhesion secondary to chronic inflammation, especially in postmenopausal women. We present a patient who had been referred to our gynecologic oncology clinic. The patient was a 65-year-old overweight female. She was referred to our tertiary hospital due to suspicion of ovarian cancer since she had CA 125 level above 3000 U/ml with a pelvic mass. To date, no cases of cholesterol granuloma causing CA 125 level above 3000 U/ml have been reported in the literature. We performed an elective diagnostic laparotomy to rule out occult malignancy. After removing the mass, it was sent for frozen section intraoperative consultation. Grossly the mass had irregular surface with yellow-brown appearance. The final diagnosis of cholesterol granuloma with serous cystadenofibroma was made. No evidence of malignancy was found. Symptoms, clinical and intraoperative findings of ovarian choloesterol granuloma can be misdiagnosed as cancer. Since the final diagnosis of a pelvic mass depends on histologic analysis, cholesterol granuloma should be kept in mind as a differential diagnosis of pelvic mass.

Uterine cervical involvement of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Rare cause of postcoital bleeding.

It should be kept in mind that non-Hodgkin lymphoma may involve uterine cervix and a multidisciplinary approach should be adopted.