Sweet's syndrome in a patient with idiopathic myelofibrosis and thymoma-myasthenia gravis-immunodeficiency complex: efficacy of treatment with etretinate

Istituto di Dermatologia, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy.

Here we present the case of a patient affected with a unique association of Sweet's syndrome, idiopathic myelofibrosis, spindle-cell thymoma, myasthenia gravis and Good's syndrome (a rare form of thymoma-related, combined immunodeficiency presenting with recurrent respiratory infections). Conventional therapies (corticosteroids, colchicine, DDS, clofazimine) were ineffective or were contraindicated. Treatment with etretinate (50 mg/day) proved effective on skin lesions. Moreover, the patient's general condition unexpectedly improved, with long-lasting (11 months) suppression of respiratory infections and a slight but consistent improvement of hematological parameters such as Hct, MCV, Hb level, RBC, WBC and lymphocyte absolute counts.