Pulmonary tuberculosis presenting as fever without source in a pediatric patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Children who undergo treatment for malignancies are at high for infection with both typical and opportunistic pathogens. Fever in these children prompts extensive evaluation and empiric treatment with broad-spectrum antimicrobials. In the United States (US), tuberculosis is an infrequently reported cause of fever in the pediatric cancer patient and has not been well described. In this report we describe a case of primary pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in a boy with precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and review the pertinent literature.