Cutaneous lymphoma

• Advanced our collaboration with EuroFlow, a consortium of more than 20 diagnostic research groups in the fields of flow cytometric and molecular diagnostics. The aim is to better define and quantify blood involvement and develop an improved diagnostic test for mycosis fungoides. Together, we are conducting a survey on plaque definition in mycosis fungoides where at present there is no objective measure.
• Studying ‘time to next treatment’ (TtNT ) in the PROCLIPI database of mycosis fungoides and Sezary syndrome to assess clinical benefit of different treatments. Most treatments only result in partial responses and frequently with short duration of response. TtNT provides a surrogacy for clinical benefit for patients by recording the length of time from start of one treatment to the need for a next one.
• Hosted two Group meetings where we explored several new trial ideas and designs, as well as new strategies to obtain private-sector funding. The meeting in Marseille involved especially significant exchanges about pathophysiology, new targets, new treatments and quality of life with virtual presentations from as far as the US and Australia.
• Launched 2 clinical trials sponsored by EORTC and supported by academic grants from the pharmaceutical industry:
  • The REACH trial (EORTC 1754-CLTF) aims to determine the aetiology of chloremethine gel-induced skin drug reactions in early-stage mycosis fungoides. The study has recently opened for recruitment.
  • The MOGAT trial (EORTC 1820-CLTF) aims to assess the efficacy of mogamulizumab in combination with total skin electron beam (TSEB) therapy in patients with early-stage cutaneous T cell lymphoma. The study will open for recruitment in June 2022.

EORTC studies in this field have defined the clinicopathological characteristics of distinct types of cutaneous lymphomas. These studies have supported the establishment of standard of care treatments, and were instrumental in updating the WHO classification for cutaneous lymphomas.

We published EORTC consensus recommendations for the treatment of mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome in the 2007 European Journal of Cancer and these were updated in 2017.

We collaborated with other International Lymphoma Organisations (International Society of Cutaneous Lymphoma; ISCL) to produce Consensus Recommendations for the treatment of primary cutaneous CD30 positive T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders, published in Blood Journal in 2011. The recommendations also revised the staging and classification of both mycosis fungoides, Sezary syndrome and other non-mycosis fungoides primary cutaneous lymphomas (all published in Blood Journal in 2007).