Acute tumor lysis syndrome induced by rituximab in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Acute tumor lysis syndrome (ATLS) is a well-known complication of chemotherapy in patients with rapidly proliferative hematopoietic malignancies such as lymphoma and leukemia. Rituximab anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, an alternative to chemotherapy in the treatment of low-grade follicular lymphoma, also has been associated with ATLS. Rituximab-induced ATLS has been reported in 2 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and in 2 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I report another case of rituximab-induced ATLS in a patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and review the cases in the literature.