Cutaneous T-cell Lymphomas: A Single-center Retrospective Analysis.

Introduction: Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCLs) are rare diseases characterized by infiltration of malignant T-cells into the skin. We evaluated the prevalence, epidemiology, and therapy of CTCLs, focusing on its most well-known subtypes, namely mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sézary syndrome (SS).

Patients and methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical data of patients with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of CTCL presenting to our outpatient department during a 5-year period from January 2015 to December 2019.

Results: We evaluated the files of 102 patients, of whom 67% were men and 33% women. The overall mean age was 59.1±14.1 (24-86) years. Ninety-two patients (90%) were diagnosed with MF and ten patients (10%) with SS. According to ISCL/EORTC, the majority of patients initially classified as stage IA (34%) and IB (45%). Disease frequency decreased at advanced stages (II: 4%; III: 7%; IV: 10%). Forty-five patients (44.1%) received only skin-directed therapy (SDT). Twenty patients (19.6%) progressed from SDT to systemic therapy (ST). Thirty-seven patients (36.3%) received ST combined with SDT (TS) from the start of treatment. Overall, fifty different therapeutic approaches of TS were initiated due to lack of response to therapy or disease progression.

Conclusion: Management of CTCLs aims to maintain patient quality of life while minimizing side-effects. As CTCLs are usually incurable diseases, the focus of treatment is on symptom control and prevention of disease progression. Due to the large patient group and the long observation period, our study allows for a valid evaluation of the frequency and therapy of MF and SS in a university outpatient clinic in Germany. We favor topical therapies in early stages with more invasive therapies in advanced stages.