Recombinant human erythropoietin is a synthetic glycoprotein hormone and has the effect on bone marrow erythroid progenitor cells. Therefore, recombinant human erythropoietin has been frequently used as an agent treating anemia in chronic renal failure patients. However, Stockenhuber reported that recombinant human erythropoietin also affected other bone marrow progenitor cells (colony- forming unit-granulocyte-erythrocyte-macrophage, colony-forming-gra-nulocyte-macrophage). This reports may suggest a possible casual relationship between acute myeloid leukemia and erythropoietin. Acute myeloid leukemia is a rare disease in patients with chronic renal failure especially on erythropoietin treatment. By this time only a case of acute leukemia in chronic renal failure was reported by Campistrus in 1995. Campistrus's case was on the remission state of acute myeloid leukemia, and erythropoietin was administered to treat anemia of chronic renal failure. Also no previous case of acute myeloid leukemia developed in chronic renal failure patients on erythropoietin treatment was yet reported in Korea. So, we report a case of acute myeloid leukemia developed in a pre-dialysis chronic renal failure patient but on erythropoietin treatment.
Anemia ; Bone Marrow ; Erythroid Precursor Cells ; Erythropoietin* ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Korea ; Leukemia ; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute* ; Rare Diseases ; Renal Insufficiency ; Stem Cells