Vorinostat for the treatment of bullous pemphigoid in the setting of advanced, refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors represent a novel class of medication that is being targeted for use in the treatment of cancer. A member of this class, vorinostat, has recently been approved for the therapy of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Importantly, emerging data from animal studies have indicated that HDAC inhibitors may have the capacity to potently suppress the development of autoimmune disease. In this report, we describe a patient with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma who developed refractory bullous pemphigoid (BP) and then experienced the rapid resolution of the BP following initiation of treatment with vorinostat. This observation may be broadly applicable to the treatment of other autoimmune skin diseases.