Epidemiology of Plasma Cell Leukemia in the Czech Republic

BACKGROUND: Plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a rare but most aggressive form of monoclonal gammopathies. PCL is characterized by the presence of clonal plasma cells in peripheral blood. There are two forms of PCL - primary which presents de novo in patients with no evidence of previous multiple myeloma and secondary which is a leukemic transformation of relapsed or refractory disease in patients with previously recognized multiple myeloma. Data from registries such as the CNCR can provide useful information on epidemiology of various dis-eases. These data, however, have several limitations, such as dia-gnostic criteria and proper coding of not only the dis-ease itself, but also its various forms. These limitations have to be taken into account during the process of results interpretation.