Hairy cell leukemia--a rare type of leukemia. A retrospective study on 39 patients.

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a chronic B-cell lymphoid leukemia characterized by pancytopenia, splenomegaly, myelofibrosis and the presence in peripheral blood, bone marrow and spleen of atypical lymphoid cells with a hairy aspect. This is a retrospective analysis of 39 patients hospitalized in the Clinic of Hematology, "Filantropia" Municipal Hospital, Craiova, Romania, between 1997-2012, devised by age, sex, and HCL type. Characteristic features of diagnosis (including clinical features, laboratory data: complete blood cell count, differential count, peripheral blood and bone marrow infiltration with atypical lymphoid cells with cytoplasm fine prolongations, immunophenotyping of peripheral blood, bone marrow, spleen or lymph node biopsies with histopathological exams and immunohistochemistry), types of therapy (focused on IFN-α), complications (infections, hemorrhage, autoimmune, second malignancies) and survival rate were monitored. Conclusions of the study revealed the importance of histopathology and immunohistochemistry for diagnosis, of the therapeutic options in the absence of purine nucleoside analogues, the most frequent complications and the decrease of their incidence correlated with therapy and increased count of neutrophils.