A Case of Cronkhite–Canada Syndrome markedly improved with mesalazine therapy

We report a 50-year-old Japanese woman with typical clinical manifestations of Cronkhite–Canada Syndrome (CCS) and possible novel treatment modality for this disease. The patient was diagnosed as CCS based on the presence of several clinical manifestations, such as a diffuse alopecia, nail deformities, hypogeusia, pigmentation of skin, and abdominal discomfort combined with diarrhea and wasting. In addition, she also had multiple polypoid lesions in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. She was first treated with hyperalimentation and corticosteroid. While this combination therapy seemed to reduce several clinical manifestations, abdominal symptoms and diarrhea recurred with the beginning of oral nutrition. Endoscopy and histology showed that inflammatory changes remained, especially in the lower intestine. Therefore, mesalazine was started. A few days after this therapy, her clinical symptoms disappeared and the polypoid lesions in the large bowel completely resolved. It was therefore possible to restart oral nutrition. We predict that the administration of mesalazine might be one of the useful therapies for CCS.