Carboplatin hypersensitivity in children. A report of five patients with brain tumors.

Background: Carboplatin, which is used in the treatment of several childhood tumors, increasingly has been reported to cause hypersensitivity reactions, the majority reported in adults. Five cases of children with primary brain tumors who were treated with carboplatin and developed acute allergic reactions are presented.

Methods: The clinical history of each patient is described, as is the schedule, cumulative dose, and number of infusions of carboplatin, type of reaction, and retreatment.

Aleukemic leukemia cutis: juvenile chronic granulocytic leukemia presenting with figurate cutaneous lesions.

We report a 3 1/2-year-old girl who developed a figurate cutaneous eruption. Distinctive findings in her skin biopsies, as well as unusual red cell characteristics, in the presence of a normal peripheral smear and bone marrow biopsy, led us to suspect the diagnosis of preleukemic juvenile type chronic granulocytic leukemia. This is the first case we know of in which this diagnosis was suspected prior to abnormal findings in the peripheral smear or bone marrow.