Highlights
What is the new aspect of your work? Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare disease and bone lesions are very unusual at diagnosis. We describe two typical HCL patients, who present at diagnosis bone lesions: right frontal tumefaction above the eyebrow and right femoral localization, respectively. In both cases, the bone marrow infiltration was moderate and the bone biopsies showed a typical infiltration with hairy cells.
What is the central finding of your work? 18F-FDG PET/CT could be a useful tool for the HCL diagnosis by guiding the bone biopsy and for the follow-up of the patients treated by cladribine (CDA) and rituximab (R).
What is (or could be) the specific clinical relevance of your work? The detection of bone lesions is crucial in HCL and could require18F-FDG PET/CT. The bone marrow infiltration by hairy cells could be moderate, requiring bone biopsies. The association CDA plus R could be very effective, allowing a complete remission (CR) in both cases with a durable CR in one case reaching more than 8 years.