Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a clonal mature B-cell
neoplasm with a typically indolent
clinical course. Though most clinicians follow these
neoplasms through observation alone, an aggressive transformation to
prolymphocytic leukemia,
diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma (Richter transformation) or classical
Hodgkin lymphoma requires immediate attention. We present a case of extreme
leukocytosis (>1 million/μL) in a previously diagnosed CLL patient. Due to symptomatic
leukostasis, she was started on cytoreductive
therapies including leukocytapheresis. After three rounds of leukocytapheresis (LCP) and concurrent
chemotherapy, her white blood cell count decreased from a maximum 1262 × 103 /μL to 574 × 103 /μL. To our knowledge, CLL with symptomatic
leukostasis that required therapeutic LCP is rarely reported in literature. We propose that therapeutic LCP is of value in such rare, yet dangerous settings like our case.