Gastric Antral Vascular Ectasia during the Treatment of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia with Imatinib Mesylate

Abstract

This report describes three patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia who developed gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) during treatment with imatinib mesylate (IM). Cessation and/or switching from IM to nilotinib resulted in the alleviation of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and ectatic lesions. Furthermore, GI bleeding recurred after the re-administration of IM in one patient. Thus, we consider that the occurrence of GAVE in our patients was induced by IM. Although the precise mechanism of IM-GAVE is not understood, all patients took at least 400 mg/day of IM at the onset of GAVE. Thus, higher doses of IM (≥400 mg/day) may be a risk factor for IM-GAVE.