Mandibular myelosarcoma (chloroma): primary oral manifestation of promyelocytic leukemia

Oral myeloid sarcoma as an uncommon manifestation of acute myeloid leukemia: A case series and review of the literature

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

Oral myeloid sarcoma (MS) is an extramedullary tumor that can occur in the setting of acute myeloid leukemia, either as the first sign of an underlying disease or later in the course of disease. The authors' aim was to present the clinical features of oral MS and review the literature.

CASE DESCRIPTION

Case 1 was an 82-year-old woman with an asymptomatic erythematous swelling on the maxillary gingiva and no history of hematologic malignancy. Case 2, a 65-year-old man, and case 3, a 58-year-old woman, each had a history of acute myeloid leukemia and a painful ulcer on the palatal mucosa and an asymptomatic ulcer on the lower lip mucosa, respectively. Case 1 was treated with focal radiation then chemotherapy and achieved complete remission initially, but died of relapse 2 years after diagnosis. Case 2 received radiotherapy and immunotherapy and had a complete response. Case 3 received chemotherapy and achieved remission initially, but relapsed and is undergoing investigational targeted therapies.

CONCLUSIONS AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Oral MS can manifest as gingival or mucosal swelling or ulceration and can indicate onset or relapse of associated hematologic malignancies, which often have a poor prognosis. Because patients with oral findings are likely to seek treatment from their dentists first, oral clinicians should maintain a broad differential diagnosis list when evaluating oral lesions, especially if treatment prescribed for a more common diagnosis fails to resolve the lesion.

Clinical characteristics and management of primary granulocytic sarcoma of the oral cavity: A case report and literature review

INTRODUCTION

Granulocytic sarcoma (GS) is a commonly occurring tumor comprising immature myeloid cells, which are usually related to acute or chronic myelocytic leukemia. The tumor rarely precedes leukemia without bone marrow involvement and is called primary GS. Although primary GS can occur in any body part, the involvement of the oral cavity is uncommon.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 49-year-old woman hospitalized at the Department of Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery presented with a growing mass in her left maxillary hard palate dating two months back. No obvious physical findings were noted during general examination. She was diagnosed with an oral ulcer at a local clinic, and received antibiotics. However, the symptoms did not improve; the mass became bigger and painful.

DIAGNOSIS

An incisional biopsy of the oral mass was performed, the immunohistochemistry showed that the tumor cells tested positive for myeloperoxidase, CD4, BCL-2, KI-67. Bone marrow aspiration was negative for malignant cells, and the laboratory test results revealed only monocytosis. Standard bone marrow cytogenetic analysis showed a normal karyotype and leukemia-related fusion gene detection was normal. Therefore, the final diagnosis was intraoral primary GS.

INTERVENTIONS

The patient was treated with a chemotherapy regimen based on idarubicin and cytarabine arabinoside.

OUTCOMES

After 2 cycles of idarubicin and cytarabine arabinoside regimen chemotherapy, the patient achieved complete remission. The tumor was barely visible in the left maxillary hard palate. There has been no evidence of disease spread and progression after 1 year of follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Careful morphological and immunohistochemical analyses, correlating with clinical data are necessary to establish the diagnosis of oral primary GS. Early aggressive systemic chemotherapy can effectively relieve symptoms, significantly reducing primary GS conversion into acute myelocytic leukemia and prolonging overall survival.

Myeloid sarcoma occurring concurrently with drug-induced gingival enlargement

BACKGROUND

Myeloid sarcoma is an extramedullary malignancy of myeloblasts. An unusual case of myeloid sarcoma presenting in the gingiva and affected by drug-induced gingival enlargement is presented.

METHODS

A 63-year-old male taking amlodipine for his hypertension presented with a 3-week gingival enlargement. Although the obvious clinical impression was that of drug-induced gingival enlargement, an incisional biopsy was performed to corroborate chemical enlargement while ruling out diseases such as lymphoma and leukemia.

RESULTS

Microscopic examination of the thickened gingiva revealed surface stratified squamous epithelium having needle-like rete pegs characteristic of drug-induced gingival enlargement. Beneath the surface epithelium, the fibrous tissue was virtually replaced by a dense infiltrate of malignant cells. Immunohistochemical studies were performed with CD117 and myeloperoxidase identifying the malignant cell population as myeloblasts, leading to a diagnosis of myeloid sarcoma.

CONCLUSION

Myeloid sarcoma and hematopoietic malignancies must be included in a differential diagnosis of gingival enlargement until the definitive diagnosis is reached by histologic/laboratory examination.

Granulocytic sarcoma: An atypical presentation in the oral cavity

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a hematologic disorder that is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of immature myeloid cells. Granulocytic sarcomas are clusters of leukemic myeloid cells that may develop as a result of AML. Oral manifestations of AML are common and often involve enlargements of the gingiva and/or mucosal tissue from direct leukemia cell infiltration. We describe the case history of a 50-year-old man who had an ulcerative lesion of the oral mucosa that was determined to be a granulocytic sarcoma of AML-MO subtype. The combination of both the subtype and clinical presentation of the leukemia makes this presentation unusual, and to the best of our knowledge, of a type that has not been previously reported in the literature.

Granulocytic sarcoma of gingiva: an unusual case with aleukemic presentation

BACKGROUND

Granulocytic sarcoma (GS) is an uncommon extramedullary tumor composed of dense aggregates of immature myeloid precursor cells, which is usually associated with acute or chronic myeloid leukemia. The tumor may also be a predecessor to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It may be found in any location throughout the body; however, intraoral occurrence is extremely rare. This report describes a case of gingival granulocytic sarcoma that developed prior to AML in a 12-year-old female.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The patient, who had a 3-month history of gingival enlargement, was diagnosed as having granulocytic sarcoma based on clinical, radiological, and histological findings. Although the tumor regressed significantly after two induction chemotherapy courses, the patient subsequently died due to pneumococcal sepsis and pleurisy.

CONCLUSION

This case report affirms the importance of granulocytic sarcoma in the differential diagnosis of gingival enlargements, since the tumor may occur before bone marrow involvement by leukemic cells.

Comparison in treatments of nonleukemic granulocytic sarcoma: report of two cases and a review of 72 cases in the literature

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to reveal the clinical characteristics of nonleukemic granulocytic sarcoma (GS) and an association between the therapeutic regimens and the nonleukemic period.

METHOD

Clinical records of 2 patients reported here and 72 patients gathered using a literature search on Medline from other institutions were analyzed. The patients consisted of 57 patients who preceded acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL) and 17 patients who did not develop ANLL. These patients were divided into 3 groups by therapeutic regimens; Group I included 12 patients who received only biopsy or surgical resection of the tumor, Group II was 20 patients who received local irradiation for the tumor, and Group III consisted of 42 patients who received systemic chemotherapy. The nonleukemic periods between these groups were compared. In Group III, the period in the patients who were treated with chemotherapy given to ANLL was compared with that in the patients who received chemotherapy used for malignant lymphoproliferative disorders (MLPDs).

RESULTS

Thirty-five patients (47%) initially were misdiagnosed, and the disease was most often malignant lymphoma. Preferential sites of GS were the small intestine, mediastinum, epidural site, uterus, and ovary, which often are difficult for the detection and diagnosis in addition to the skin and lymph nodes known commonly. The nonleukemic period after the diagnosis of GS was significantly longer in Group III than in the other groups (median, 12 months in Group III vs. 3 and 6 months in Groups I and II, respectively). The aggressive chemotherapy given to ANLL led to a longer nonleukemic period than the chemotherapy used for MLPDs.

CONCLUSIONS

To reduce the risk of subsequent ANLL in patients with nonleukemic GS, it is important that accurate histologic diagnosis is established initially for GS and that all isolated cases of GS, even those that appear to be cured by resection or irradiation of the tumor, are treated with intensive chemotherapy similar to that used to treat ANLL during the nonleukemic period as soon as possible.

Intra-alveolar granulocytic sarcoma developing after tooth extraction

Granulocytic sarcoma (GS) is a malignant tumour composed of poorly differentiated myeloid cells forming in an extramedullary site. It is generally associated with acute leukaemia, particularly the myelocytic type. Its appearance in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia is exceptional. GS can appear in multiple locations with the oral cavity being rarely involved. A mandibular GS detected in a patient with chronic myeloid leukaemia 10 days after a tooth extraction is reported. The pathogenesis (by metastatic cells or migration through the Haversian canals) of the tumour is discussed.

Mandibular chloroma demonstrated by magnetic resonance imaging

A case of chloroma or granulocytic sarcoma in the mandible of a young child is presented with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features.

Primary granulocytic sarcoma presenting with pleural and pulmonary involvement

A 36-year-old woman presented with cough, pleural effusion and atelectasis. Evaluation included pleural biopsy, bronchoscopy, bone marrow biopsy, endomyocardial biopsy and ultimately thoracotomy. The diagnosis of granulocytic sarcoma involving lungs and pleura but not bone marrow was made histologically.

Maxillary chloroma: a myeloid leukaemic deposit

A chloroma is described in the left quadrant of the maxilla in a 4-year-old girl. This patient had previously completed a course of chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia, but had been off all drug therapy and in remission for 1 year prior to presentation. Chloroma is a well recognised, if uncommon, mode of presentation of acute myeloblastic leukaemia and a previous case of chloroma occurring in the mandibular gingival tissues has been reported (Reichart et al., 1984). An unusual feature in the present case is the appearance of the chloroma as a form of leukaemic relapse and as a solitary deposit which is itself uncommon in acute myeloblastic leukaemia. It is suggested that this chloroma was a leukaemic deposit which had spread from within the maxillary antrum or the tissues adjacent to the meninges.

Granulocytic sarcoma (chloroma) of the oral cavity: a case with aleukemic presentation

A case of granulocytic sarcoma, or chloroma, of the palatal mucosa, which developed 15 months before the onset of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), is reported. The diagnosis was suspected on the basis of the light microscopic findings and confirmed by histochemical studies. Granulocytic sarcomas are rare, may be observed in a variety of body locations, and are considered specific lesions of AML or of the onset of blast crisis in chronic myelogenous leukemia. Primary granulocytic sarcomas of the oral cavity without systemic manifestations of AML are extremely rare. Clinical diagnosis of these lesions in patients with normal peripheral blood and bone marrow may be very difficult.

Acute myelofibrosis and multiple chloromas of the mandible and skin

Acute myelofibrosis is a rare clinical entity characterized by severe marrow fibrosis and peripheral blood pancytopenia. It may be very closely related to and has been considered synonymous with megakaryocytic leukemia. Chloroma is also a rare entity composed of a localized collection of immature myeloid cells and is associated with a known or covert leukemia. A patient presenting with a rare combination of acute myelofibrosis, megakaryocytic leukemia and multiple chloromas of the mandible and skin, are described. Although presenting a diagnostic challenge, their combination in one patient aids in the understanding of the myeloproliferative process. To our knowledge, this is the 3rd case of chloroma involving the oral osseous structures.

Granulocytic sarcoma in nonleukemic patients

Sixteen patients presenting with granulocytic sarcoma without evidence of acute leukemia were seen and diagnosed at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston from 1962 to 1985. Seven of them (44%) did not develop acute leukemia. Of these seven, four are alive with no evidence of disease 3.5 to 16 years after initial presentation; the remaining three patients died of their disease within 2 to 8 months of presentation. Two of 16 patients were diagnosed within the last 15 months and do not have adequate follow-up. The seven remaining patients developed acute leukemia within 1 week to 13 months of the diagnosis of granulocytic sarcoma. Six of them died 5 weeks to 16 months after diagnosis; one patient has been in complete remission for 8 years. Twelve of these 16 cases (75%) were initially misdiagnosed, most frequently as large cell lymphoma. The remaining four cases were correctly diagnosed as granulocytic sarcoma. The naphthol-ASD-chloroacetate esterase stain was required to make the correct diagnosis in all cases. Contrary to findings in other series, granulocytic sarcoma arising in nonleukemic patients does not necessarily progress to acute leukemia. At least four of 16 (25%) patients in this series did not develop acute leukemia during the 3.5 to 16 years they have been followed. No prognostic factors were identified in this series to predict which patients would develop acute leukemia and which ones would not.

Granulocytic sarcoma of the mandible

The case is presented of a 54-year-old black man with a mass apparently involving only the soft tissue retromolar trigone on panoramic and mandibular series radiographs. A granulocytic sarcoma involving the mandible was diagnosed on biopsy with the aid of histochemical stains, immunologic cell surface markers, and electron microscopy. The autopsy also revealed involvement of the ribs and liver.

Oral manifestations in myelodysplastic syndrome. Review of the literature and report of a case

Gingival hyperplasia in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome is described. Gingival infiltration was the first sign of acceleration of a stable disease process and was followed by development of a more aggressive phase of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia that was not responsive to therapy. Oral and dental assessment of patients with the myelodysplastic syndromes should be a part of routine management.