Work Up for Early Stage Mycosis Fungoides (Chapter 3)

Jennifer Alston DeSimone, MD, FAAD, Associate Professor, University of Virginia School of Medicine; Assistant Professor, Georgetown University Hospital; Director, Cutaneous Lymphoma and High Risk/Transplant Dermatology; INOVA Schar Cancer Institute Melanoma and Skin Oncology Center discusses cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and the work-up for early stage mycosis fungoides.

The diagnosis of CTCL is often challenging; as a result, delays in diagnosis (and subsequently work-up and treatment) can be significant. Part of the reason is the variability in how individual patients present with CTCL and its subtypes. Because mycosis fungoides progresses slowly, some patients may not experience progression beyond their initial symptoms, even beyond 10 years. Patients with mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome also have overlap in manifestations; in fact, Sézary syndrome was once classified as a malignant, leukemic variant of mycosis fungoides but is now recognized as a distinct CTCL subtype.