Colon and Stomach Walls Involved with CLL B cells

[Guest guest]

Hello friends,

I recently received a colonoscopy and then a stomach

endoscopy that turned up results that were novel to me. I

thought I would share and see if others might recognize the

symptoms in themselves.

I'm 63yr old male, Dx 2008 with Trisomy 12 (atypical

" bright " CD 20), Zap 70 neg & CD38+. In 2010 when my WBC hit

254,000 and then dropped to 214,000 I had fatigue and leg

cramps, then developed a cough that we ultimately concluded

was Whooping Cough (despite several Doctors dimissing that

as a " Child's Disease " ). In trying to diagnose the cause of

the cough I had a full body CT scan that found only a few

slightly enlarged lymph nodes in my abdomen and a slightly

enlarged spleen. The CT report also indicated a thickened

stomach wall, without any conclusions.

My former Hem/Onc was convinced I should have had an

enlarged spleen and lots of large lymph nodes, and was

puzzled why she could not find where the B cells were

accumulating.

This summer I had a very thorough Colonoscopy and the Doc

noticed an unusual " grainy " appearance on the colon wall,

like sand paper. The path report found lots of CLL B cells,

and postulated a " malt lymphoma " . A follow up endoscopy

found the thickened stomach wall and lots more CLL B cells

(but no bacterial cause for the thickend walls). So it

appears that my CLL cells " hang out " in my colon and stomach

walls.

Fortunately the Rituxan treatments I had in June and

December 2010 have worked wonders and all my bloods were

normal most of this year (I am now at 16K WBC), I may be

able to go another year or more before having to treat again.