Find in Library

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has a myriad of presentations. Although aplastic and pancytopenic presentation of ALL is known, available literature is relatively old and mostly in the form of case reports and small series on aplastic presentation of ALL. There is a stark paucity of larger studies assessing clinic-demographic correlates of pancytopenia in ALL and its influence on survival outcome, especially from developing nations. Therapeutic advances in childhood ALL have diluted the importance of traditional prognostic-factors in developed nations. These factors and other more easily available lab parameters might still be important in resource-limited nations since use of contemporary molecular and cytogenetic methods may not be feasible. Hence, this study was designed to assess the incidence, clinic-demographic correlates, outcome and impact of pancytopenia at presentation in a large tertiary care setting.