Retrospective evaluation of hairy cell leukemia patients; Analysis of a long-term single center data

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a distinct lymphoproliferative disorder with unique circulating lymphocyte morphology. It is now regarded as an indolent disease yet treatable with purine analogs. We are going to present a complete long-term clinical and prognostic report of our HCL patients as a large cohort in Iran.

All patients diagnosed with HCL according to WHO criteria referred to our academic center in the period of 1995 to 2020 are enrolled. Treatment with daily cladribine regimen was initiated as indicated and patients were followed. Survival data and clinical outcome of patients were calculated.

A total 50 patients were studied (76% male). Median time to treatment was 4.8 months and complete remission was achieved in 92% of patients. Nine patients (18%) experienced relapse with median time to relapse of 47 months. After median follow-up of 51 months, the median OS was not reached and after 234 months, the overall survival rate was 86%. Survival was worse in patients with non-classic HCL (vHCL) compared to classic HCL.

Our long-term follow up data confirmed favorable outcome of Iranian HCL patients with cladribine and provide a useful viewpoint of the disease.