Prognostic factors of patients with mycosis fungoides

INTRODUCTION: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most common type of primary cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Prognostic factors may help to evaluate the course of the disease and may also be useful in selecting appropriate treatment plans for patients. AIM: To investigate the potential prognostic factors of MF and their correlations with MF stage. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We evaluated the records of patients with MF who were followed in our lymphoma clinic between 1998 and 2015. Age, sex, disease stage, peripheral blood eosinophilia, eosinophil cationic protein, serum total IgE, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and β(2)-microglobulin levels were investigated and recorded at the time of diagnosis. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant positive correlation between high β(2)-microglobulin levels and the advanced stage of disease (p < 0.001). The older group of patients had statistically significantly higher levels of β(2)-microglobulin compared to the younger group (p = 0.001). We found strong, significantly positive correlations between disease stage and β(2)-microglobulin, LDH, and total IgE levels (p < 0.001, rho = 0.335; p = 0.001, r = 0.302; p = 0.001, r = 0.311, respectively). Additionally, there were significantly positive correlations between LDH levels and β(2)-microglobulin, total IgE levels (p < 0.001, rho = 0.484; p = 0.001, r = 0.212, respectively). Study limitations: A limited number of patients and the retrospective nature of the study. CONCLUSIONS: We found that β(2)-microglobulin was a significant prognostic factor in our study population of MF patients. Also, elevated LDH, β(2)-microglobulin, and total IgE levels were correlated with advanced disease. Thus, these parameters can be used together to identify patients who have progressed to the later stages of the disease and who require more aggressive treatment.