The Acute Tumor Lysis (ATL) syndrome is a relatively common emergency in the management of cancer that occurs after chemo- and radiotherapy or even spontaneously. It is frequent during the treatment of hematological malignancies, but may be observed in patients with solid tumors and can be caused by corticosteroid administration and various cytoreductive therapies. Since the success of cancer treatment is largely measured by the reduction of malignant growth or its containment, the destruction of large numbers of cancer cells is an obvious goal. However, the oncologist must be aware of the potentially lethal complications from the deluge of catabolic metabolites and intracellular debris resulting from a high rate of cell turnover and destruction.
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