Tazarotene 0.1% gel for refractory mycosis fungoides lesions: an open-label pilot study.

Background: Topical skin-directed therapies are used to induce remissions in early-stage mycosis fungoides (MF). They are rarely curative, and responding patients are subject to frequent relapses, emphasizing the need for alternative therapies.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of topical tazarotene 0.

Tazarotene-induced gene 3 is suppressed in basal cell carcinomas and reversed in vivo by tazarotene application.

Basal cell carcinomas are the most common form of skin cancer. Tazarotene is a retinoic acid receptor selective retinoid that upregulates a tumor suppressor, tazarotene-induced gene 3 (TIG-3), in keratinocytes and psoriasis. Expression of TIG-3 in basal cell carcinomas was studied in an opened-label pilot biomarker study of 22 patients with basal cell carcinomas who applied tazarotene 0.

Bexarotene is a new treatment option for lymphomatoid papulosis.

Background: Lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP) is a clonal T cell proliferation with large cell histology, a chronic course, and an increased risk of lymphoma. Bexarotene (Targretin) is an RXR-selective retinoid (rexinoid) approved for the cutaneous manifestations of cutaneous T cell lymphoma.

Objective: To determine whether bexarotene is effective in treating LyP.

Optimizing bexarotene therapy for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

Background: Bexarotene (Targretin oral capsules), the first RXR-selective retinoid "rexinoid" approved for all stages of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), had a response rate (RR) of 45% at the optimal dose of 300 mg/m(2) per day in 2 multicenter trials. With hypertriglyceridemia reported at 79%, bexarotene is often administered with lipid-lowering agents (LLAs). Statins (inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase) may modulate class II major histocompatibility class expression and T-cell responses.

Treatment of refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma with denileukin diftitox (ONTAK).

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) are an uncommon and heterogeneous group of well-differentiated, post-thymic T-cell malignancies that can present in the skin as cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. In general, their prognosis is poor, and specific therapy is not well defined. We report the successful treatment of a patient with relapsed, refractory PTCL who after failing 13 standard single and multiple chemotherapy regimens and experimental agents had a dramatic prolonged response to diftitoxin denileukin (ONTAK).