Response but severe toxicity with low dose decitabine in a Werner’s syndrome patient with acute myeloid leukemia and t(9;19)(p13;p13)

Werner’s syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive premature aging syndrome caused by mutations in the Werner RecQ helicase. Patients typically die in their 5th decade from cardiovascular disease or cancer. There are few reports of the treatment of malignancies in these patients. We previously reported a patient with Werner’s syndrome who expired from multi-organ failure after treatment of AML with intensive chemotherapy. We currently report a patient with Werner’s syndrome and AML who was treated with decitabine, a low intensity regimen commonly used to treat elderly patients. This patient also developed severe toxicity, but recovered and obtained a complete remission. Unfortunately the patient’s disease progressed 5 months later and he then expired Correspondence to: Karen Seiter, M.D, Department of Medicine, Room 205 Munger Pavilion, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA, Tel: (914) 493-7514, Fax: (914) 594-4420, E-mail: [email protected]