UPMC Children’s Oncology Researchers Discover and Treat First Known Case of AML in Pediatric Patient With ALPS-FAS
October 18, 2021
A clinical team from the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh published their experience in diagnosing and successfully treating the first known case of acute myeloid leukemia and mast cell proliferation in a pediatric patient with autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS).
The case report was published in June 2021 in the journal Pediatric Blood Cancer.
Former pediatric resident Naomi Gunawardena, MD, was the first author of the study. She was joined in the case report by Meghan McCormick, MD, MS, and senior author A. Kim Ritchey, MD, from the pediatric hematology/oncology division at UPMC Children’s. Collaborating on the case report was former Department of Pathology faculty Yen-Chun Liu, MD, PhD.
Case Highlights
The patient was initially diagnosed with ALPS-FAS at the age of 8 months. At age 14, the patient developed AML, which rapidly responded to chemotherapy with no evidence of minimal residual disease after the first cycle. After induction of chemotherapy treatments he was also found to have mast cell proliferation, which persisted after five rounds of therapy.
Ultimately the patient underwent an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HCST) as the potential benefit of the transplant outweighed the risks associated with the approach in this particular patient.
Since the patient’s allo-HCST, he has remained in remission from both the AML and mast cell proliferation for more than 24 months.
For more information, read the entire case report at the link below.
Reference
Gundawardena N, McCormick M, Liu Y-C, Ritchey AK. Successful Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Mast Cell Proliferation in a Patient With Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2021 Aug; 68(8): e29012.
