The clinicoprognostic consequences of mycosis fungoides (MF) involvement in the head and neck remain unknown. For a study, researchers sought to assess the impact of head and neck involvement on the clinicoprognostic characteristics of MF.
The clinical characteristics and survival outcomes of MF patients in a Korean academic medical center database were studied retrospectively based on the occurrence of head and neck involvement at diagnosis.
At the time of diagnosis, cases of MF with (group A, n=39) and without (group B, n=85) head and neck involvement were found. Advanced disease (stages IIB-IVB) was more prevalent in group A (43.6%) than in group B (5.9%) (P<.001). Group A had a higher rate of MF advancement, extracutaneous dissemination, and large-cell transformation than group B. The 10-year overall survival rate in group A was lower (53.4%) than in group B (81.6%) (P<.001). In early-stage MF (stages IA-IIA), involvement of the head and neck at diagnosis was linked with a poor prognosis and was independently related to inferior progression-free survival (hazard ratio, 24.4; 95% CI, 2.2-267.6; P=.009).
A worse outcome was related to MF involvement in the head and neck.
Reference: jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(21)00609-5/fulltext
