B-Prolymphocytic leukemia: a case study.

The case study reported is of a patient initially misdiagnosed as chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Immunophenotyping studies ultimately identified the nature of the disease as B-cell prolymphocytic leukemia with concomitant warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia. The leukemia and hemolytic anemia were refractory to all conventional treatments administered. The patient survived a significantly shorter period of time than the median time of three years reported in the literature. The patient expired from complications resulting from B-cell PLL, warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and combination chemotherapy.