Deficient cutaneous antibacterial competence in cutaneous T-cell lymphomas: role of Th2-mediated biased Th17 function.

Purpose: Primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) are neoplastic disorders of skin-homing T cells. Affected skin areas show morphologic similarities with alterations in other T-cell-mediated dermatoses. Furthermore, as in atopic dermatitis but in contrast with psoriasis, patients with CTCL are frequently afflicted by cutaneous bacterial infections that support the survival of lymphoma cells.

Aggressive epidermotropic cutaneous CD8+ lymphoma: a cutaneous lymphoma with distinct clinical and pathological features. Report of an EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Task Force Workshop.

Aims: Aggressive epidermotropic cutaneous CD8(+) lymphoma is currently afforded provisional status in the WHO classification of lymphomas. An EORTC Workshop was convened to describe in detail the features of this putative neoplasm and evaluate its nosological status with respect to other cutaneous CD8(+) lymphomas.

Methods And Results: Sixty-one CD8(+) cases were analysed at the workshop; clinical details, often with photographs, histological sections, immunohistochemical results, treatment and patient outcome were discussed and recorded.

Long-term outcome of intravenous therapy with rituximab in patients with primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas.

Background: The monoclonal antibody rituximab directed against the B-cell antigen CD20 was approved for the treatment of B-cell lymphomas and maintenance therapy in follicular lymphomas more than a decade ago. However, median follow-up in case series of intravenous rituximab therapy in primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (CBCL) lasts only up to 3 years. We retrospectively analysed a cohort of CBCL patients treated with rituximab to gain more long term information.

Efficacy and safety of bexarotene combined with psoralen-ultraviolet A (PUVA) compared with PUVA treatment alone in stage IB-IIA mycosis fungoides: final results from the EORTC Cutaneous Lymphoma Task Force phase III randomized clinical trial (NCT00056056).

Background: Psoralen plus ultraviolet A (PUVA) is the standard treatment for early stages of mycosis fungoides. There have been no adequate randomized controlled trials with sufficient power comparing this modality with other therapies.

Objective: To assess disease response and to compare the response rates of patients treated with PUVA alone or PUVA and bexarotene.

Phase II clinical trial of intratumoral application of TG1042 (adenovirus-interferon-gamma) in patients with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphomas and multilesional cutaneous B-cell lymphomas.

Cutaneous lymphomas (CLs) are a heterogeneous group of lymphoproliferative disorders that are manageable by immunotherapy. Twenty-one patients were enrolled in a prospective open-label, dose-escalation multicenter study evaluating the effects of repeated TG1042 [adenovirus-interferon (IFN)-gamma] intralesional injections in patients with primary CLs, of which 18 were of T-cell and 3 of B-cell type. Repeated intralesional therapy using TG1042 consistently results in local tumor regressions in about half of treated patients and one-third of patients also in regressions in noninjected distant lesions, likely reflecting the systemic immune activation after intralesional therapy.