Affiliation

• ¹Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
• ²Department of Haematology, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
• ³Wolfson Computer Laboratory, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
• ⁴Department of Oncology, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
• ⁵Department of Immunology, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
• ⁶West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory, Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Corresponding Author

Julia Scarisbrick, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Birmingham, NHS Foundation Trust Birmingham, UK, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Room 48G Nuffield House, 5th Floor B15 2TH, Tel: 44 121 371 5127, Fax: 44 121 460 5845; E-mail: julia.scarisbrick@uhb.nhs.uk

Citation

Scarisbrick, J.J., et al. Assessment of Peripheral Blood Tumour Burden in Mycosis Fungoides and Sézary Syndrome Shows Infrequent Involvement in Early and Tumour Stage Disease. (2015) Cell Immunol Serum Biol 1(1): 6- 12.

Copy rights

©2015 Scarisbrick, J.J. This is an Open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords

Abstract

Background: Peripheral blood involvement is recognised as an adverse prognostic factor in Mycosis Fungoides (MF) & Sézary Syndrome (SS) which is reflected in the revised staging for MF/SS using blood (B) classification. Various methods exist to assess B classification.
Objective: To assess peripheral blood involvement in MF/SS using T-cell receptor (TCR) analysis, lactate dehydrogenase levels and flow cytometric immunophenotyping.
Methods: 57 consecutive patients with MF/SS assessed at our Cutaneous Lymphoma Centre, University Hospital Birmingham, UK between 2011 and 2014 were identified: 30 with early stage (I-IIA) and 27 with advanced disease (IIB-IV).
Results: In early stage disease, 2/30 (7%) had identical TCR clones in skin and blood compared to 14/27 (52%) in advanced disease (p < 0.001). Abnormal immunophenotyping was found in 7/27 patients (26%) with advanced disease (p = 0.003) which included 6/14 (43%) erythrodermic patients but none in early stage disease. Elevated LDH was the most frequent abnormality occurring in 60% including 39% with early stage disease.
Conclusion: This represents the first study of all stages of MF/SS analysed for peripheral blood involvement. Abnormal immunephenotying is unusual in early or tumour stage disease. TCR gene analysis provides a sensitive detection rate of low level blood involvement in early MF but lacks specificity hence improved sequencing techniques is required such as next generation sequencing. We suggest that standardised TCR gene analysis can be used as a screening tool in all stage MF/SS patients and those with identical clonality or advanced disease patients can be further tested with immunophenotyping.