What is known and objective

Skin rash is one of the typical side effects of lenalidomide (LEN) treatment. Desensitization therapies have been reported to be effective in patients with severe skin rash caused by LEN. However, they have proved impractical due to the complexity of the protocols.

Case summaries

We present 5 patients who developed severe LEN-induced skin rash. The five patients received our simple, slow desensitization protocol, and all were re-administered LEN with no adverse reaction.

What is new and Conclusion

Our simpler and slow desensitization protocol, which desensitizes the patients without reducing the effect of LEN, includes drug holidays, similar to the usual LEN dosing schedule, and moreover is recommended as a treatment option especially for elderly patients with no housemate to help with medical management.