Acute undifferentiated leukemia limited to neck lymph nodes and a large mediastinal mass

Abstract

In the 2016 update of the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of myeloid neoplasms, acute undifferentiated leukemia (AUL) was defined by a lack of lineage-specific markers. AUL has very poor prognosis and no established therapies due to its rarity. We report a case of a 31-year-old man with AUL who showed complete molecular response to an acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)-based regimen and received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The patient's blast cells were CD7-positive and localized to lymph nodes in the neck and to a large mediastinal mass; there was also rearrangement of the T-cell receptor delta locus. Although the tumor showed characteristics of T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, it was categorized as AUL based on WHO classification. This case suggests that a high-intensity conditioning regimen could be effective for rare cases of AUL that present only in the extramedullary mass, and chemotherapy for AUL should be selected based on the characteristics of the blasts.