Ustekinumab for treatment of cutaneous crohn’s disease

Abstract

Cutaneous Crohn disease (CD) affecting the vulva, perineum, and perianal skin, is a rare entity, which may accompany or precede gastrointestinal CD. Vulvar involvement, if untreated, may ultimately require extensive surgery including vulvectomy to gain control of the disease. Both gastrointestinal and cutaneous CD respond to biologics, which block TNFα. In addition, ustekinumab, which targets both IL-12 and IL-23 cytokines, is effective in patients with gastrointestinal CD who fail TNF blockade. However, it is unclear if ustekinumab is effective for cutaneous CD. Herein we present a patient with cutaneous CD affecting the vulva and perianal skin, which, at seven months, had a marked response to ustekinumab administered at higher doses than typically used for psoriasis.