Imatinib-induced gastric antral vascular ectasia in three patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia

Jeremy Ong1, David Yeung2, Robin Filshie3

  • 1Department of Haematology, St Vincent's Hospital, 41 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, VIC, 3065, Australia. jeremy.ong@svha.org.au.

Imatinib is generally well tolerated, but gastric antral vascular ectasia (GAVE) remains a rare but significant complication of imatinib therapy. Whilst this complication has been described in other disease settings, only one other case of GAVE has been reported in a chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patient receiving imatinib. Herein, we present three CML patients with GAVE complicating imatinib therapy. In all cases, GAVE resolved only with cessation of imatinib. This confirms a causal relationship between GAVE and imatinib. GAVE should be considered as a possible cause of anaemia and upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients receiving imatinib therapy.

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