Radiotherapy to the mediastinum in chronic myeloid leukaemia

We would like to report on the effect on the white cell and platelet counts of a patient with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) who received radiotherapy to her mediastinum for a carcinoma of the bronchus. A 64-year-old female presented with a 6 week history of hoarseness, pain in the left arm, tiredness and dyspnoea on mild exertion. The patient had an ECOG performance status of 2 and had lost approximately 5% of her body weight. Examination confirmed a left upper zone lung lesion and no demonstrable neurological deficit in the left arm. Chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) scan of the thorax showed a 10 cm mass in the left upper lobe, an enlarged para-aortic lymph node and sputum cytological examination revealed squamous carcinoma. The patient was thus diagnosed as having a T2N2 squamous carcinoma of the lung.