RHABDOMYOSARCOMA PRESENTING AS ACUTE-LEUKEMIA

Purpose: We describe a case of a very unusual presentation of rhabdomy osarcoma. Patient and Methods: An 18-year-old woman presented with sym ptoms and signs compatible with acute leukemia. The bone marrow pictur e showed diffuse involvement sustained by undifferentiated blasts that turned out to be of striated muscle origin by immunochemistry. While it is well known that rhabdomyosarcoma may metastasize to the bone mar row, extensive marrow involvement with leukemic spread as a unique cli nical manifestation is extremely rare. Conclusion: Our observation fur ther confirms the need to consider rhabdomyosarcoma among the possible differential diagnoses in patients who present with a leukemic pictur e and atypical blasts lacking all hematopoietic markers.