Spontaneous remission in a secondary acute myelogenous leukaemia following invasive pulmonary aspergillosis

Abstract

Spontaneous remission of adult acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) represents a rare event. We report a 60-year-old female patient suffering from secondary AML M1 and severe invasive pulmonary hyalohyphomycosis highly suggestive of aspergillosis. Two months after the diagnosis of leukaemia, she achieved a spontaneous remission lasting 3 months, although neither cytostatic drugs nor corticoids were administered because of a septic condition. At the time of remission, a chronic hepatitis C virus infection and a polyclonal hypergammaglobulinaemia were present, and the patient received granulocyte colony-stimulating factor once. This report represents the first documentation of a spontaneous remission in AML following invasive pulmonary hyalohyphomycosis. Possible mechanisms of this phenomenon are discussed.

Spontaneous Remission in an Older Patient with RelapsedFLT3ITD Mutant AML

“…Because nonirradiated blood products contain potentially functional antileukemic lymphocytes, transfusion of such products can potentially induce antileukemic effects in a manner similar to graft-versus-leukemia [30, 40, 41]. The role of antileukemic antibodies or other factors in donor serum has also been speculated [42].…”

An unusual case of smoldering AML with prolonged indolent clinical course and spontaneous remission in the terminal phase

“…There are about 20 reports of spontaneous remission of AML since the 1980s [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Spontaneous remission is by no means synonymous with cure, since the average duration of the remission is only 7.1 ± 9.2 months [7].…”

Spontaneous hematological remission of acute myeloid leukemia

“…In particular, severe systemic infections appear to precede SR [11–14]. The explanation of this phenomenon is that infections could lead to exuberant activation of the immune system and could exert an anti-leukemic effect causing containment of the leukemia.…”