Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2020; 8(13): 2833-2840
Published online Jul 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i13.2833
Acute myelomonocytic leukemia during pembrolizumab treatment for non-small cell lung cancer: A case report
Hong-Beum Kim, Sang-Gon Park, Ran Hong, Seong-Ho Kang, Yong Sub Na
Hong-Beum Kim, Department of Premedical Course, Chosun University School of Medicine, Gwangju 61452, South Korea
Sang-Gon Park, Department of Hemato-oncology, Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju 61453, South Korea
Ran Hong, Department of Pathology, Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju 61453, South Korea
Seong-Ho Kang, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju 61453, South Korea
Yong Sub Na, Department of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju 61453, South Korea
Author contributions: Kim HB was a major contributor to the writing of the manuscript; Park SG revised the manuscript; Hong R interpreted the histologic findings; Kang SH interpreted the blood smear and bone marrow biopsy findings; Na YS revised and approved the manuscript.
Supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, No. NRF-2015R1A5A2009070.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Kim reports grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, No. NRF-2015R1A5A2009070, during the conduct of the study.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yong Sub Na, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Chosun University Hospital, 365 Pilmun-daero, Dong-gu, Gwangju 61453, South Korea. ebusters@chosun.ac.kr
Received: February 14, 2020
Peer-review started: February 14, 2020
First decision: May 26, 2020
Revised: May 29, 2020
Accepted: June 17, 2020
Article in press: June 17, 2020
Published online: July 6, 2020
Core Tip

Core tip: In the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), pembrolizumab has demonstrated significant efficacy, significant survival outcomes, long-lasting responses, and good safety profile. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of acute myelomonocytic leukemia during pembrolizumab in a patient with NSCLC. However, the precise underlying mechanism remains unknown.