Treatment of the Early Mycosis Fungoides / 대한피부과학회지

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 ( 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.