Background: A patient with chemotherapy-resistant acute monocytic leukemia who achieved complete remission (CR) after iron chelation therapy (ICT) with deferasirox is reported for the first time. A 73-year-old Japanese man with acute monocytic leukemia who was refractory to conventional remission induction chemotherapies achieved a partial response, with some improvement of his hemoglobin level and white blood cell count after gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) treatment. Seven months after GO treatment, the disease relapsed and the patient developed pancytopenia. He declined further chemotherapy, and started receiving 1,200-1,800 ml of packed red blood cell transfusion per month together with ICT with deferasirox (baseline serum ferritin level was 1,412 ng/ml). Twelve months after the initiation of deferasirox, the patient's serum ferritin level decreased to below 1,000 ng/ml and deferasirox was discontinued. Four months after discontinuation of deferasirox, the blood cell count normalized and the patient became transfusion-independent. Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy revealed hematological and cytogenetic CR.
Conclusion: CR was achieved after ICT with deferasirox in a patient with acute myelogenous leukemia, suggesting that deferasirox may have an antileukemic effect in the clinical setting.