Conjunctival hemorrhagic events associated with imatinib mesylate

Imatinib mesylate (IM) is used in the targeted therapy of chronic myelogenous leukemia and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. It is well tolerated and leads to no higher incidence of hemorrhagic events than other therapies. Of 87 patients we treated with IM for a minimum of 3 months, 10 patients (11%) developed unilateral or bilateral conjunctival hemorrhage (CH). No other hemorrhagic events were observed during follow-up, except for CH recurrence in 6 cases (7%). Because there was no other obvious reason for such a high incidence of CH, we hypothesize drug hypersensitivity or ocular irritation induced by IM treatment.