Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2020 Aug:43:102140.
doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2020.102140. Epub 2020 Apr 28.

Severe skin reactions associated with cladribine in people with multiple sclerosis

M Mateo-Casas  1 , S Reyes  2 , E A O'Toole  3 , S De Trane  2 , O Yildiz  2 , K Allen-Philbey  4 , J Mathews  5 , D Baker  6 , G Giovannoni  2 , K Schmierer  7
Affiliations
Case Reports

Severe skin reactions associated with cladribine in people with multiple sclerosis

M Mateo-Casas et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To report three cases of severe skin reactions in patients treated with cladribine for multiple sclerosis.

Methods: Case study.

Results: Patients developed severe rash 3-192 days after receiving cladribine. All were effectively treated with steroids and antihistamines. Additional doses of cladribine were administered after pretreatment with steroids and anti-histamines. One patient developed mild recurrence following re-exposure, which resolved within three days, whilst another patient tolerated re-exposure without further adverse reaction.

Conclusion: Severe skin reactions, well described in patients receiving cladribine for treatment of haematological conditions, may occur in patients treated with this compound for multiple sclerosis. Neurologists need to be aware of this rare, but significant adverse reaction. Re-exposure may be safe with standard pre-treatment against allergic reactions.

Keywords: Adverse event; Allergy; Cladribine; Disease-modifying treatment; Multiple sclerosis; Skin reactions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest None considered relevant. MMC, SR, EO, DTS, YO and APK have nothing to declare. JM has received advisory boards fees from Novartis and Merck. DB has received compensation for consultancies presentations and/or advisory board activities from Merck. DB is shareholder of Canbex Therapeutics and has received compensation for activities related to Canbex therapeutics, Japan tobacco, Roche and Sanofi-Genzyme; GG has received honoraria and meeting support from AbbVie Biotherapeutics, Biogen, Canbex, Ironwood, Novartis, Merck, Merck Serono, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, Synthon, Teva and Vertex; KS has received honoraria and/or meeting support from Biogen, Lipomed, Merck Serono, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi Genzyme, and Teva.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources