Fatal hypereosinophilia with chromosome 15q- in a patient with multiple primary and familial neoplasms.

A man with large-cell carcinoma of the lung, cerebral meningioma, occult adenocarcinoma of the prostate, and follicular adenoma of the thyroid developed symptomatic, rapidly progressive hypereosinophilia with abnormalities of eosinophil ultrastructure and bone marrow karyotype (45,X,15q22-). Although the patient's eosinophilia defied strict classification as idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), simple tumor-associated eosinophilia, or eosinophilic leukemia, it appeared to be incited by the lung cancer and quickly acquired malignant independence. The family had an excess of prostate cancer and lymphoproliferative neoplasms.