[Treatment with cyclosporin A of the anemia associated with chronic lymphatic leukemia].

The anaemia accompanying chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) may have different causes (bone marrow infiltration, hypersplenism, immune haemolysis, haemorrhages) and is one of the poor-prognosis features of the disease. Treatment of advanced CLL patients with tumoral-infiltrative anaemia is based on chemotherapy. Nevertheless, some proofs seem to stress the important role played by suppressor T cells on the mechanism of the anaemia in such patients. As a result of these observations, cyclosporin A, a drug with proven efficacy in autoimmune diseases and bone marrow insufficiency, is being used in these cases. Three patients with advanced B-CLL and anaemia, refractory to treatment, received cyclosporin A (8-10 mg/kg, p.o. daily for 2-4 months). One of them recovered from anaemia and thrombocytopenia and is still in this situation after 11 months of suppression of therapy. Two other such cases are revised from the literature, as well as the role played by cyclosporin A in the therapy of CLL.