Acute pancreatitis in association with L-asparaginase therapy: report of one case.

L-asparaginase has been used clinically for treatment of a wide variety of pediatric neoplastic diseases (e.g. acute lymphocytic leukemia, malignant lymphoma, etc.) A 14-year-old female patient, is a victim of acute lymphocytic leukemia, Pre T type. She got acute pancreatitis after the L-asparaginase therapy. We reported her clinical course and our management. It is concluded that early diagnosis of pancreatitis is usually difficult, because the symptoms are vague, physical findings may be minimal, and laboratory studies are frequently inconclusive until the injury is severe. Therefore, physicians must be cautious to the patient's chief complaint before administering the next dose of L-asparaginase, because it may occur more earlier than the laboratory or image studies and thus could be used to predict pancreatitis.