A case of Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia and EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinoma synchronous overlap: may one TKI drug solve two diseases?

Background: Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph⁺) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) refers to ALL patients with t(9;22) cytogenetic abnormalities, accounting for about 25% of ALL. Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most common pathological type of non-small-cell lung cancer, which has a frequency of approximately 45% cases with mutations in EGFR. Both Ph⁺ ALL and EGFR mutant LUAD are involved in the pathogenesis of the abnormal activation of the tyrosine kinase pathway. Although the second primary hematological malignancy after the treatment of solid tumors is common in clinics, the synchronous multiple primary malignant tumors of hematological malignancy overlap solid tumors are uncommon, even both tumors involved in the pathogenesis of the abnormal activation of the tyrosine kinase pathway are extremely rare.

Case presentation: An 84-year-old man with fatigue and dizziness was diagnosed with Ph⁺ ALL. Meanwhile, a chest CT indicated a space-occupying lesions, characterized by the presence of void, in the right lower lope with the enlargement of mediastinal lymph node and right pleural effusion. After a few weeks, the patient was diagnosed with LUAD with EGFR exon 19 mutation. Both tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) (Flumatinib) and EGFR-TKI (Oxertinib) was used for the patients, and finally have controlled both diseases.

Conclusion: As far as we know, we for the first time reported a case of Ph⁺ ALL and EGFR mutant LUAD synchronous overlap, of which pathogenesis is related to abnormal tyrosine kinase activation. This patient was successfully treated with two different TKIs without serious adverse events.