Treatment with apremilast was beneficial for chronic graft‐versus‐host disease skin lesion in a patient with psoriasis

Abstract

Dear Editor, Generally, apremilast, a phosphodiesterase 4 (PED4) inhibitor, seems to be safer than biologics for refractory psoriatic patients with a history of cancer. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish a chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) skin lesion from recurrent psoriasis after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). A recent report disclosed that roflumilast, another PED4 inhibitor, was effective for chronic lung GVHD in mice. We report here the first case of a chronic GVHD skin lesion in a patient with psoriasis after allogeneic BMT for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) beneficially treated with apremilast. A 45-year-old Japanese man had suffered from psoriasis vulgaris since 1987, and had been treated with topical corticosteroids and vitamin D3. In April 2011, he developed AML