Chronic lymphocytic leukemia diagnosed during pregnancy - case report and review of literature

Abstract

Introduction. B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) can be easily overlooked in pregnancy, particularly in cases with inadequate antenatal care. We report a case of pregnant woman diagnosed with CLL and evaluate this patient with cases in literature. Case report. An asymptomatic 35-year-old woman presented with slightly elevated absolute lymphocyte count at antenatal monitoring in her second pregnancy. Further hematological investigations disclosed CLL with monoallelic deletion of chromosome 13q14. She was monitored during throughout the pregnancy, being asymptomatic and without treatment, and delivered a healthy child at term with no complications. After almost four years of follow up patient is without any signs of disease progression and her absolute lymphocyte counts remained on predelivery levels. This is the first published case of CLL diagnosed during pregnancy in Serbia. Rare similar cases published so far have been discussed, especially in terms of disease course, long-term prognosis and available therapeutic modalities. Conclusion. Due to the fact that nowadays many women are delaying childbearing in middle age it can be expected that cancer diagnose could be more often found in pregnant women in the future. In a view of the complex nature of such condition, a multidisciplinary approach for diagnosing and treating of pregnant women is highly recommended.