Results of a prospective phase II trial with oral low-dose bexarotene plus photochemotherapy (PUVA) in refractory and/or relapsed patients with mycosis fungoides.

Introduction: Bexarotene is a synthetic retinoid effective in early and advanced stages of mycosis fungoides (MF)/Sezary Syndrome (SS) both in monotherapy and combination schemes. We aimed to assess disease response to low-dose bexarotene and PUVA in maintenance in refractory and/or resistant patients with early and advanced stage MF/SS.

Methods: We followed prospectively 21 patients (stages IB-IV): 15 with early stage MF and 6 with advanced disease.

Thrombosis in essential thrombocytemia and early/prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis: the role of the WHO histological diagnosis.

Background: Vascular events represent the most frequent complications of thrombocytemias. We aimed to evaluate their risk in the WHO histologic categories of Essential Thrombocytemia (ET) and early Primary Myelofibrosis (PMF).

Methods: From our clinical database of 283 thrombocytemic patients, we selected those with available bone marrow histology performed before any treatment, at or within 1 year from diagnosis, and reclassified the 131 cases as true ET or early PMF, with or without fibrosis, according to the WHO histological criteria.

Cerebral vein thrombosis in patients with Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms. An European Leukemia Net study.

To investigate the characteristics and clinical course of cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) we compared 48 patients with MPN and CVT (group MPN-CVT) to 87 with MPN and other venous thrombosis (group MPN-VT) and 178 with MPN and no thrombosis (group MPN-NoT) matched by sex, age at diagnosis of MPN (±5 years) and type of MPN. The study population was identified among 5,500 patients with MPN, from January 1982 to June 2013. Thrombophilia abnormalities were significantly more prevalent in the MPN-CVT and MPN-VT than in MPN-NoT group (P = 0.

Lesional skin chemokine CTACK/CCL27 expression in mycosis fungoides and disease control by IFN-alpha and PUVA therapy.

Recruitment of neoplastic T cells to skin is a critical step in the pathogenesis of mycosis fungoides (MF) lesions. Cutaneous T-cell attracting chemokine (CTACK)/CCL27 attracts memory T cells to skin, resulting in increased cutaneous expression. The interactions between neoplastic cells and skin immune system require further elucidation.