SPONTANEOUS REMISSION OF POLYCYTHEMIA-VERA - CLINICAL AND CELL-CULTURE CHARACTERISTICS

A 20-year-old woman presented with polycythemia vera and was treated w ith phlebotomy alone for eleven years, following which all clinical ma nifestations of the disease disappeared. The clinical remission with n ormal physical findings and normal peripheral blood counts has persist ed for a further 11 years. Erythroid colony culture results have paral leled the clinical state. Initial bone marrow cultures revealed sponta neous growth of erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-E). Subsequent cult ures of peripheral blood cells throughout most of the period of sponta neous clinical remission have revealed little or no spontaneous growth of BFU-E. This suggests a suppression of the abnormal stem cell clone during the period of remission. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.