Successful treatment with recombinant thrombomodulin for B-cell lymphoma-associated hemophagocytic syndrome complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation.

We report here a 47-year-old male with the diagnosis of high-grade B-cell lymphoma and hemophagocytosis accompanying disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Lymphoma-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (LAHS) is a life-threatening disorder, and LAHS secondary to B-cell lymphoma is relatively rare compared to that secondary to T- or NK/T-cell lymphoma in Western countries. T- or NK/T-cell LAHS is sometimes combined with DIC, which makes patients' outcomes even worse, but few reports of B-cell LAHS accompanying DIC has been published so far. We successfully treated a patient with this condition with recombinant thrombomodulin (rTM), a novel agent for DIC. We believe that rTM is a therapeutic option in cases with B-cell LAHS accompanying DIC.