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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1402897

Nontuberculosis Mycobacteria (NTM) Infections in Patients with Leukemia: A Single Center Case Series

Provisionally accepted
Jennifer Marvin-Peek Jennifer Marvin-Peek Koji Sasaki Koji Sasaki Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis Javier Adachi Javier Adachi Maro Ohanian Maro Ohanian Koichi Takahashi Koichi Takahashi Ghayas Issa Ghayas Issa Steven Kornblau Steven Kornblau Hussein A. Abbas Hussein A. Abbas *
  • University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Patients with leukemia experience profound immunosuppression both from their underlying disease as well as chemotherapeutic treatment. Little is known about the prevalence and clinical presentation of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in this patient population. We identified six cases of NTM infection from 29,743 leukemia patients who had acid-fast bacilli (AFB) cultures. Four cases had bloodstream infections and five had disseminated disease, including one who presented with an unusual case of diffuse cellulitis/myositis. All patients were lymphopenic at time of diagnosis, and two patients ultimately died from their NTM infection. NTM infections are a rare, but potentially life-threatening infection in patients with leukemia. Sending AFB cultures early is important to direct appropriate antimicrobial therapy and allow for future leukemia-directed therapy.

    Keywords: AML, Non tubercolous mycobacteria, NTM, Leukemia, ALL

    Received: 02 Apr 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Marvin-Peek, Sasaki, Kontoyiannis, Adachi, Ohanian, Takahashi, Issa, Kornblau and Abbas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hussein A. Abbas, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, United States

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