Diagnosis, staging, and monitoring of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

Abstract

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma includes mycosis fungoides and its leukemic variant, the Sézary syndrome. This review discusses the clinical, histopathologic, immunophenotypic and immunogenotypic features of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma as they apply to the diagnosis, staging and monitoring of this disease.

Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) is expressed by cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCLs), and its downregulation promotes cell cycle arrest and apoptosis

“…[1][2][3] The Polo-like kinases (Plks) are a family of highly conserved serine/threonine kinases regulating the entrance, progression and exit of mitosis. 4 Plks are named after the Drosophila melanogaster homolog Polo.…”

Second Lymphomas and Other Malignant Neoplasms in Patients With Mycosis Fungoides and Sézary Syndrome

“…[1][2][3][4] Classically, it is manifested as a flat patch or thin plaque and can progress to tumor and extracutaneous involvement. 4,5 Sézary syndrome (SS) is the leukemic form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and is manifested with pruritic erythroderma, generalized lymphadenopathy, and circulating Sézary cells. 3 In the new World Health OrganizationEuropean Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer classification for cutaneous lymphomas, SS is described as an entity distinct 6 from MF, although the diseases may have overlapping clinical features.…”

The significance of multiplex PCR/heteroduplex analysis‐based TCR‐γ gene rearrangement combined with laser‐capture microdissection in the diagnosis of early mycosis fungoides

“…Another factor that frequently causes a false‐negative result is the low density of tumor cells infiltrating the specimens 13 . In advanced MF, a dominant clonal rearrangement is frequently detected by conventional PCR‐based TCR ‐γ analysis, which can help substantiate a diagnosis of MF.…”

“…These patients manifested erythematous and variably scaly patches and/or thin plaques but lacked one or two microscopical criteria in biopsies as described 24 for the typical MF group. The typical MF group (Table 2) included patients who were carefully diagnosed according to criteria of Wood et al 13 and served as positive controls. This group included 12 specimens from 10 patients (three specimens from patient 4, seven in plaque stage and three in tumor stage).…”

“…PCR sensitivity is influenced by many factors, including the failure of PCR primers to detect all possible gene rearrangements, tumor cell density below the detection threshold and deletion or absence of gene rearrangements 13 . To investigate the influence of different primers, we previously screened 19 typical MF cases with six primer pairs: T VG /T JX , 14 V 2–5 /V 8–12 /JGT 1 , 15,16 V γ11 /V γ101 /J γ12 , V γ11 /V γ101 /J p12 , 17 BIOMED‐2‐TCR‐γ and BIOMED‐2‐TCR‐β 18 .…”