Different outcome of myeloid sarcoma with spinal cord compression preceding acute myeloid leukemia: Report of two cases and review of literatures

Myeloid sarcomas (MS) preceding acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are rare, which presenting as acute spinal cord compression is even rare. Here we report two new cases of myeloid sarcoma patients, whose outcomes were different. Twenty-seven patients with spinal MS preceding AML have been reported to date, including the two cases presented in this article. Surgical decompression was performed in 25 of the 27 patients, and 23 of these received additional anti-AML therapy. Considering our patients and the published cases in the literature we suggest that immunohistochemical study plays an essential role in arriving at a correct diagnosis of MS, and that emergency surgery to resect spinal MS is an available treatment to make neural function recovery, and that the disease must be treated with intensive chemotherapy similar to that used to treat AML as soon as possible after resection or irradiation of the tumor.