BACKROUND:

Neonatal leukaemia is the one diagnosed in the first 30 days of life. Its incidence is reported in 1 to 5 per million of newborns (it represents less than 1% of leukaemias).

CASES PRESENTATION:

We describe all cases diagnosed with neonatal leukaemia between January 1st 1990 and November 1, 2012 at our institution. We searched for all medical records labelled under the diagnosis of leukaemia, and we selected those in which the diagnosis was done in the first 30 days of life. A total of 3,061 medical records were labelled as leukaemia, from which only 5 (0.16%) corresponded to neonatal leukaemia. Affected patients were three females and 2 males with a median age at diagnosis was 21 days (17-26 days). Three cases were acute myeloid leukaemia and two acute lymphoid leukaemia. One patient had Down syndrome. Four patients developed tumoral lysis syndrome. Four patients died at a median age of 84 days (57-176 days). The only survivor patient received complete 50% reduced ATEDox NOPHO protocol, with a last follow-up visit at age 3 years were he has reported free of disease.

CONCLUSIONS:

We describe the largest cases series in Mexico of neonatal leukaemia.