Cutaneous lichenoid eruption caused by imatinib mesylate in a Japanese patient with chronic myeloid leukaemia.

© 2009 The Authors. doi: 10.2340/00015555-0636 Journal Compilation © 2009 Acta Dermato-Venereologica. ISSN 0001-5555 Sir, Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CMV) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder, in which the Philadelphia chromosome is the cytogenetic hallmark. It is characterized by the t(9;22) translocation, which in turn creates the chimeric bcr-abl oncogene coding for a constitutively activated tyrosine kinase (1, 2). Imatinib mesylate is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets the bcr-abl protein, c-kit, and platelet-derived growth factor receptors and is used to treat CMV, gastrointestinal stromal tumours, and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (3, 4). The development of the specific inhibitor of bcr-abl tyrosine kinase is a notable success in the treatment of CMV and has recently been approved as a first-line treatment for CMV (5). Adverse cutaneous reactions to imatinib mesylate are not infrequent, but their clinical and histopathological features have generally been poorly characterized. We report here a Japanese patient with cutaneous lichenoid eruptions that occurred during imatinib mesylate treatment for CMV.