Topical Pentoxifylline Gel on Behcet's Disease Genital Ulcers

Behçet's Disease (BD) is a complex, chronic, relapsing, multi-system inflammatory disorder that is characterized by oral ulcers, genital ulcers in addition to ocular and skin symptoms. Genital ulcers are the second most common symptom of BD and occur in 57-93% of BD patients. The genital ulcers of BD clearly cause considerable morbidity for those affected. This will be one of the first trials of a topical product designed for accelerated healing of BD genital ulcers. There is no cure or FDA-approved therapies for BD genital ulcers and the treatment of recurrent genital ulcers that are associated with BD is palliative. Recent study evaluating the effect of topical PTX on BD oral ulcers suggests that topical pentoxifylline (PTX) might have an immediate impact on BD oral ulcer healing leading to accelerated ulcer clearance, which results in lower daily ulcer numbers for the patients along with reduced pain scores. Investigators hypothesize that application of topical PTX will accelerate the healing of BD genital ulcers in a similar clinically meaningful way, and further hypothesize that topical PTX can become a valuable adjunct to any other systemic therapy for BD.