Probable veno-occlusive disease after treatment with gemtuzumab ozogamicin in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia and a history of liver transplantation for familial hemochromatosis.

A 69-yr-old male with a history of familial hemochromatosis and status after liver transplantation was found to have severe thrombocytopenia (platelet count of 8000/microL). He was also anemic and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after a bone marrow biopsy. He was started on gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) and developed hepatic and multiorgan failure consistent with veno-occlusive disease within 2 wk.

Lymphoma of cytotoxic/suppressor T cell phenotype (T8) following angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy.

A patient with angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy was treated with chemotherapy to complete remission for 13 years. A single relapse, self-limited, occurred followed 2 years later by the appearance of a disseminated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with prominent cutaneous lesions and hypogammaglobulinemia. Cells from the peripheral blood and an affected lymph node were characterized by immunologic studies as deriving from the T8 subset of lymphocytes, suggesting a functional relationship between these suppressor cells and the patient's clinical manifestations.