Decitabine as a treatment choice for de novo acute basophilic leukemia: transient response-a case report

Acute basophilic leukemia (ABL), as a rare form of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) accounts for <1% of cases of AML. ABL has not been detected for encouragingly specific targets. Here we report a de novo fragile ABL case treated with decitabine based regimen with transient response even if overall survival was a 3-month. The case of a 79-year-old male who was complained of fever, rashes and cytopenia is reported in the current study. The diagnosis of ABL was identified due to characteristic cytomorphological features and immunophenotype of myeloid blast cells without the Philadelphia chromosome. The patient initially presented with short-term improvement with decitabine. Combination of decitabine and arsenic trioxide in second chemotherapy regimen didn’t reverse the end of death with a 3 months overall survival. In conclusion, our study revealed that decitabine may be an efficient therapeutic option in ABL patients and warranted much more exploration in use.