Korean J Dermatol.
2007 Oct;45(10):983-988.
Treatment of the Early Mycosis Fungoides
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Dermatology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. khcho@snu.ac.kr
- 2Department of Dermatology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Bundang, Korea.
Abstract
-
BACKGROUND: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most frequent form of cutaneous lymphoma. Early stage MF is known to be responsible to the various topical and systemic therapies. However, there have been few clinical reviews of the treatment modalities of the early stoge MF in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic response of early MF to different treatment modalities.
METHODS
The medical records, clinical photographs, and biopsied tissues, of fifty three cases of early MF were reviewed.
RESULTS
The mean age at diagnosis of early MF was 43.0 years old (varied between 9 and 81 years old). Twenty three (43.4%) were male and thirty (56.6%) were female. Topical carmustine (bis-chloroethyl-nitrosourea, BCNU) was the most commonly used treatment modality in the early MF (34.0%). Patients treated by BCNU in stage IA (<10% skin involved) showed a response rate of 85.7%. Early MF recorred in only one patient after 93 months. However BCNU was not effective for the patients in stage IB (> or =10% skin involved). Even Psoralen plus UVA (PUVA) therapy, which was most efficient in stage IB, revealed a high relapse rate after one year.
CONCLUSION
BCNU has been most commonly used for the treatment of early MF during the past 10 years in the authors' hospital. It showed a comparatively high response rate, and the relapse rate of BCNU was lower than for other therapies in stage IA. However many treatments became ineffective when MF progressed to stage IB. Therefore the authors confirm that early diagnosis and proper therapy are most important for the treatment of early MF.
