Infectious Mononucleosis and Acute Leukemia
- Fred Rosner, MD;
- Hans W. Grünwald, MD
- From the Division of Hematology (Dr Grünwald) and the Department of Medicine (Dr Rosner), Queens Hospital Center, affiliation of the Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center, Jamaica, NY, and the Department of Medicine, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook (Drs Rosner and Grünwald).
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
TO OUR knowledge, 26 cases1-15 have been reported of the association of infectious mononucleosis and acute leukemia (Table). In seven instances, the former preceded the latter by one to 36 months, in 16 cases the acute leukemia preceded the infectious mononucleosis by one to 45 months, and in three patients both diseases were diagnosed simultaneously. Twenty-one patients were children or teenagers, perhaps accounting for the 20 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Three patients had acute monocytic leukemia.
The possible relationship, if any, between the Epstein-Barr (EB) virus, infectious mononucleosis, and acute leukemia is far from clear. Although the EB virus has been etiologically linked to Burkitt's lymphoma, its relation to acute lymphoblastic leukemia has not been established. It seems rather far-fetched to state that the coincidence of acute monocytic leukemia and infectious mononucleosis in two elderly patients suggests a causal relationship.15 Although one report11 suggests that the EB virus
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Department of Medicine, Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center, 82-68 164 St, Jamaica, NY 11432 (Dr Rosner).
