Risk of second cancer in patients with hairy cell leukemia: long-term follow-up.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to assess the risk of second cancers in patients with hairy cell leukemia (HCL).

Patients And Methods: We investigated the incidence of additional cancers in those patients registered in the nationwide registry of the Italian Cooperative Group for the Study of HCL, asking the cooperating centers for additional information on initial and subsequent therapies and on time and type of second malignancies, if they developed. Here we report the final results of this survey, consisting of 54 cases of second malignancies (excluding nine cases of epithelial skin cancer) which developed in 54 patients of 1,022 with adequate follow-up.