Response of agranulocytosis to thymectomy in a patient with thymoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

A patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia presented with recurrent episodes of severe neutropenia. This neutropenia was initially responsive to prednisone but eventually became refractory. A spindle-cell thymoma was diagnosed and resected with dramatic improvement in his granulocytopenia. Both autologous and heterologous granulocyte macrophage colony growth were clearly inhibited by the patient's serum. This is the first reported case of severe granulocytopenia associated with a thymoma that seemed to be reversed following thymectomy.