Hello Arif, welcome to this forum.
I am pleased that you are responding to therapy with imatinib (Glivec). Although this condition is not serious I can understand that it must be distressing. I have tried to find a good source of information regarding what can causes melasma and also what can be done about it.
It seems that it might be related to hormone imbalances- (normally in women) as well as side effects of some drugs such as certain antibiotics. However, if imatinib is the cause of your melasma, you obviously cannot stop taking the drug for obvious reasons.
Therefore I suggest you try to supplement with vitamins and minerals which might help. I have found one website which has information on which supplements you can try.
http://skinverse.com/guide-to-melasma-and-hormone-imbalances.html#Drug-r...
However, I also recommend that you ask your CML doctor to ask Novartis if this skin condition is a documented side effect of imatinib. If it is recognised as such, you might ask your doctor to consider changing your therapy to one of the other TKI's nilotinib or dasatinib. I am not sure if either are readily available to you?
I suggest you also take precautions regarding increased skin sensitivity to the sun. This is a side effect of imatinib and some patients find that they have to protect from over exposure and wear protective sun cream.
I am sorry I cannot be more helpful.
best wishes,
Sandy
