Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia occurring as second malignancy: report of the GIMEMA Archive of Adult Acute Leukaemia

Between July 1992 and Tune 1996, 901 new cases of adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia were recorded in the GIMEMA Archive of Adult Acute Leukaemia; 21 of them (2.3%) had a previous primary malignancy (PM). We found that secon dary acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cases (sALL) presented with older age, a high incidence of pre-pre-B immunophenotype and a significantly higher pre valence of cancer among relatives compared to de novo ALL. The leukaemogenic activity of the cytotoxic drugs employed for the treatmen t of PM may have played a potential role in only a proportion of patients, opening the possibility that some sALL patients may have developed two or m ore malignancies due to individual predisposing factors.