The development of leukemia after successful treatment of a malignancy is one of the most feared complications.
We describe a patient with secondary leukemia that developed after chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer of the maxilla.
A 54-year-old man presented in July 1989 with a gingival swelling in the right side of the maxilla. Squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed on examination of a biopsy specimen. He was treated with a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. After complete remission for 3 years, pancytopenia was detected in August 1993, and acute leukemia was diagnosed on examination of a specimen obtained by bone marrow aspiration. Chromosomal analysis showed partial deletion of 5 q-. Chemotherapy failed to induce remission, and the patient died 39 days later.