AUTOIMMUNE THROMBOCYTOPENIC PURPURA ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT FORMS OF CANCER

Twenty-two patients with autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura (ATP) ass ociated with different forms of neoplasms are presented. Cancer-relate d ATP appeared at the time of either the clinical manifestation or rel apse of the neoplastic disease, sometimes one month to 10 years after surgery and/or radio-or chemotherapy. All the patients presented high levels of both platelet-associated IgG and less frequently of serum-pl atelet bindable IgG. The surgical removal of the tumor performed in so me thrombocytopenic patients did not induce the remission of ATP. The clinical and hematological response to steroid therapy was generally p oor. The possibility of an occult tumor in patients with apparently id iopathic ATP and the possible autoimmune etiology of thrombocytopenia in cancer should therefore be considered, although the pathogenetic me chanisms of autoimmune diseases in neoplastic patients have not yet be en well defined.