Hairy Cell Leukemia—New Genes, New Targets

IG genes and hairy cell leukemia.

New mutation in hairy cell leukemia.

In this issue of Blood, Dietrich et al make the first observation of the presence of deleterious CDKN1B mutation in 16% of patients with hairy cell leukemia (HCL). Furthermore, in the majority of patients, the CDKN1B mutation was clonal, suggesting that this mutation plays a role in the pathogenesis of HCL.

Hairy cell leukaemia.

Hairy cell leukaemia is a rare form of lymphoproliferative disease that affects 2% of leukaemia patients and was first described in 1958 as leukaemic reticuloendotheliosis. The typical presentation is pancytopenia, splenomegaly and abnormal lymphoid cells in blood with hairy cytoplasmic projections. The pathological hairy cell resembles in many ways B-lymphocyte as in chronic lymphocytic leukae...

Hairy cell leukemia-variant.

Hairy cell leukaemia variant is a very rare chronic lymphoproliferative disorder and is closely related to hairy cell leukemia. We hereby describe a case of hairy cell leukaemia variant for the first time in Saudi Arabia. An elderly Saudi man presented with pallor, massive splenomegaly, and moderate hepatomegaly. Hemoglobin was 7.7 g/dl, Platelets were 134 x109/l and white blood count was 140x1...

Hairy cell sarcoma.

A 39-year-old coal merchant presented to his family practitioner with a seven month history of swelling of the left side of his face. He was referred to hospital where a left parotid mass was noted. All routine haematological and biochemical investigations were normal. A needle biopsy of the parotid mass, showed, on light microscopy using mercury based fixation, the presence of cells whose appe...