clinical and laboratory presentation of hairy cell leukemia (hcl) and rate of response to cladribine

introduction: hcl is a rare malignant condition that is curable if diagnosed early. hcl can present with reduced blood cells and splenomegaly which maybe misdiagnosed with other conditions. the aim of the present study was to determine the frequency of early clinical and laboratory findings as well as the response rate of patients to the standard treatment regimen of cladribine. methods: the study was an uncontrolled clinical trial including 25 hcl patients referring to oncology clinics of shahid sadoughi (yazd - iran) and shahid beheshti (tehran - iran) between 1999 and 2005. data was gathered by a pre–designed questionnaire. 21 out of 25 patients were treated with cladribine and the clinical and laboratory response was assessed. results: of the 25 patients studied, 20 patients (80%) were male and 5 patients (20%) were female. most of the patients at diagnosis were 55–67 years old and the most common presenting symptom was fatigue and lassitude secondary to anemia. two patients were asymptomatic and were diagnosed incidentally. splenomegaly was the main clinical finding which was present in about 80% of the males and all of the females. accordingly, hairy cells in the peripheral blood smear, leukopenia and anemia were the most common laboratory findings. in contrast to previous results, pancytopenia was found in only 60% of the patients. response rate was 90% (19 out of 21) of which 61.9% (13 patients) and 28.5% (6 patients) had complete remission (cr) and partial remission (pr), respectively. conclusion: according to the results, it can be concluded that hcl should be considered as a possible diagnosis in the context of fatigue, splenomegaly and reduced blood cell count. the results of the present study were similar to other similar international studies.