Fatal gastrointestinal bleeding as the primary manifestation of granulocytic sarcoma in a patient with myelodysblastic syndrome.

Abstract

Granulocytic sarcoma (GS), or chloroma, is a rare extramedullary tumor composed of immature myeloid cells. It most commonly involves bone, soft tissue, lymph nodes and skin and develops during the course of or preceding myelogenous leukemia (ML). Involvement of other organs has been rarely reported including ovary, uterus and cervix, lung and the gastrointestinal tract; however, GS presenting as upper and lower gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding from ulcerated gastric mass and concurrent bleeding vaginal mass is an unusual rare manifestation of GS. We describe a case of GS in a 70 year old black woman who presented with a bleeding "lump" in the vaginal wall and suffered fatal GI bleeding from an ulcerated gastric lesion. She was diagnosed with myelodysblastic syndrome a few months earlier. From the review of the available English literature, this is a unique presentation of GS. It is important to include this entity in the differential diagnosis when encountering GI bleeding particularly in a patient previously diagnosed with myeloid leukemia or preleukemia. The importance of Naphthol Chloracetate Esterase (NCAE) stain and lysozyme immunoperoxidase stain in establishing the diagnosis is breifly discussed.