Abstract

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare indolent lymphoproliferative disorder clinically characterized by pancytopenia and splenomegaly [1], with high overall survival rates after treatment with purine analogues [2-4]. We report a relatively young patient with HCL presenting with widespread osteolytic disease detected by PET who was successfully treated with cladribine and ibandronate. Osteolyses are not considered a frequent complication of HCL [5] and we are aware of only one case report describing the use of PET for diagnostic purposes in this setting [6]. Resolution of bone lesions has been described after treatment with radiotherapy or cladribine [6-9], but to our knowledge, there are no data on the use of bisphosphonates in this context