Abstract
The patient described in this report is a 25-year-old woman. She developed chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) at the age of 14 years and was treated with imatinib mesylate (IM), resulting in complete remission. At the age of 18 years, she elected to receive a human leukocyte antigen-identical allogenic bone marrow transplantation from her sister. However, after 3 months, she relapsed. She was again treated with IM and underwent donor lymphocyte infusion from the same donor. She developed chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) on her skin that gradually worsened in terms of skin pigmentation, scleroderma, and joint contracture. She was treated with prednisolone, but it was ineffective as a single agent; thus, she was treated with etretinate and mycophenolate mofetil, but they were also ineffective. Other treatments were also tried, but they were stopped because of various severe side effects. Subsequently, IM was initiated at a dose of 100 mg/day, and her symptoms markedly improved. Our experience with this patient, along with prior reports, suggests that IM therapy is effective for refractory sclerodermatous cGVHD, although further confirmation is warranted.
