Dasatinib for chronic myelogenous leukemia improves skin symptoms of systemic sclerosis

A 64-year-old man was diagnosed with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis 5 years prior to this report. His sclerotic skin symptoms did not respond to oral low-dose prednisone (5–10 mg/day). Five years after the diagnosis, the patient presented with leukocytosis 3.8 × 109/L in a routine blood test, and was finally diagnosed with chronic-phase chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The leukemia responded optimally to initial dasatinib, and a complete cytogenetic response was achieved after 6 months of therapy. His skin symptoms dramatically improved in parallel with dasatinib therapy, as indicated by a decrease in the modified Rodnan skin score, from 12 points at diagnosis to 2 after 9 months. It has been reported that imatinib, a first-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, improves skin sclerosis in some patients with systemic sclerosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of simultaneous improvement of CML and limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis in response to dasatinib. Further study of the mechanism of action of dasatinib is crucial.