Content » Vol 93, Issue 3

Clinical Report

Cutaneous Myeloid Sarcoma: Natural History and Biology of an Uncommon Manifestation of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

M. Yadira Hurley, Grant K. Ghahramani, Stephanie Frisch, Eric S. Armbrecht, Anne C. Lind, TuDung T. Nguyen, Anjum Hassan, Friederike H. Kreisel, John L. Frater
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-1458

Abstract

We conducted a retrospective study of patients with cutaneous myeloid sarcoma, from 2 tertiary care institutions. Eighty-three patients presented, with a mean age of 52 years. Diagnosis of myeloid sarcoma in the skin was difficult due to the low frequency of myeloperoxidase and/or CD34+ cases (56% and 19% of tested cases, respectively). Seventy-one of the 83 patients (86%) had ≥ 1 bone marrow biopsy. Twenty-eight (39%) had acute myeloid leukemia with monocytic differentiation. Twenty-three had other de novo acute myeloid leukemia subtypes. Thirteen patients had other myeloid neoplasms, of which 4 ultimately progressed to an acute myeloid leukemia. Seven had no bone marrow malignancy. Ninety-eight percent of the patients received chemotherapy, and approximately 89% died of causes related to their disease. Cutaneous myeloid sarcoma in most cases represents an aggressive manifestation of acute myeloid leukemia. Diagnosis can be challenging due to lack of myeloblast-associated antigen expression in many cases, and difficulty in distinguishing monocyte-lineage blasts from neoplastic and non-neoplastic mature monocytes.

Significance

Supplementary content

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