Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Sep 1;16(17):3054.
doi: 10.3390/cancers16173054.

Rare Clinical Symptoms in Hairy Cell Leukemia: An Overview

Tadeusz Robak  1   2 , Marcin Braun  3 , Agnieszka Janus  2 , Anna Guminska  4 , Ewa Robak  5
Affiliations
Review

Rare Clinical Symptoms in Hairy Cell Leukemia: An Overview

Tadeusz Robak et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare indolent B-cell lymphoid malignancy. The majority of patients are asymptomatic and HCL is usually diagnosed incidentally during a routine blood cell count. In symptomatic patients, typical symptoms are related to pancytopenia and splenomegaly. In this review, we present rare clinical symptoms in patients with HCL.

Methods: A literature search was conducted of PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar for articles concerning hairy cell leukemia, leukemia cutis, bone lesions, neurological manifestations, pulmonary symptoms, ocular manifestations, cardiac manifestation and rare symptoms. Publications from January 1980 to August 2024 were scrutinized. Additional relevant publications were obtained by reviewing the references from the chosen articles.

Results: Extramedullary and extranodal manifestations of classic HCL are rare. However, leukemic involvement in the skin, bone, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, heart, kidney, liver, lung, ocular system and other organs have been reported.

Keywords: bone lesions; cardiac manifestation; hairy cell leukemia; leukemia cutis; neurological manifestations; ocular manifestations; pulmonary involvement; pulmonary symptoms; rare symptoms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representative images of hairy cell leukemia bone lesions. Pathologic FDG uptake in the ribs, left humerus, vertebral body Th10, sacrum, right iliac, pubic bone and ischium imaged in PET/CT imaging (A). Mixed osteolytic and osteoblastic lesions in the sacrum in PET/CT imaging (B) and vertebrum in PET/CT imaging (C). Bone marrow infiltrate of HCL in Haematoxyllin and Eosin staining, magnification of 100× (D) and in staining for CD20, magnification of 100× (E).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pulmonary involvement of HCL. X-ray chest PA view shows unilateral right diffuse pulmonary infiltrates (A). High-resolution computed tomography reveals septal thickening and multiple small and diffusely-merging focal consolidations with ground glass opacities in frontal (B), side (C) and transversal projection (D). Lung biopsy showing an infiltrate of HCL in Haematoxyllin and Eosin staining, magnification of 100× (E) and in staining for CD20, magnification of 100× (F). Damage or introduction of infection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Grever M.R., Abdel-Wahab O., Andritsos L.A., Banerji V., Barrientos J., Blachly J.S., Call T.G., Catovsky D., Dearden C., Demeter J., et al. Consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and management of patients with classic hairy cell leukemia. Blood. 2017;129:553–560. doi: 10.1182/blood-2016-01-689422. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Robak T., Matutes E., Catovsky D., Zinzani P.L., Buske C., ESMO Guidelines Committee Hairy cell leukaemia: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ann. Oncol. 2015;26((Suppl. S5)):v100–v107. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdv200. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zakarija A., Peterson L.C., Tallman M.S. Chapter 84-Hairy cell leukaemia. In: Hoffman R., Benz E.J., Shatil S.J., Furie B., Silberstein L.E., McGlave P., Heslop H., editors. Hematology: Basic Principles and Practice. 5th ed. Churchill livingStone/Elsevier; Philadelphia, PA, USA: 2009. pp. 1349–1358.
    1. Puła A., Robak T. Hairy cell leukemia: A brief update on current knowledge and treatment prospects. Curr. Opin. Oncol. 2021;33:412–419. doi: 10.1097/CCO.0000000000000771. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gupta R., Yadav S., Mittal N., Rahman K., Sharma A., Gupta A., Nityan S. Clinicopathological spectrum of hairy-cell leukemia: A single-center study with brief review of Indian literature. J. Cancer Res. Ther. 2020;16:120–126. doi: 10.4103/jcrt.JCRT_920_17. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources