A rare case of hairy cell leukemia in a15-year-old boy

Hairy-cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare slow-growing mature B cell neoplasm of the blood (2% of lymphoid leukaemias) (1). The median average age lies between 50 to 55 years. Can occur at any age from 20-80 years (1). Children are very rarely affected (1). Male to female ratio is 5:1(2). Diagnosis of HCL is based on clinical symptoms, morphologic findings in peripheral blood and bone marrow, flowcytometric immunophenotyping of blood cells and cytogenetics studies.