Five patients with mycosis fungoides, hospitalized in the Division of Radiotherapy and Medical Oncology of the Ospedale Civile, Pordenone, from January 1975 to December 1978, were studied and treated as non-Hodgkin lymphomas. All patients had evidence of disseminated disease: 3 with bone marrow infiltration, 1 with splenic involvement and 1 with lymph node involvement. Three patients were treated with CVP, resulting in 2 complete remissions that lasted 18 months and 1 PR > 50% maintained for 7 months. One patient was treated with ABVD with a PR > 50% maintained for 10 months. The last patient was treated with prednisone and then with CV, but expired from pulmonary embolism after 1 cycle. Lymphocyte function, using E and EAC rosette and PHA, was evaluated before therapy in all patients: in the 2 patients who obtained a CR, an improvement in T-lymphocyte function was noted after therapy. The chromosome pattern of peripheral blood lymphocytes was altered before therapy in only one patient. Even if the follow-up period is still relatively brief, the duration of the 2 complete remissions must be stressed. In addition, a strict correlation between T-lymphocyte function and response to therapy was revealed in our study.
T-lymphocyte homing: an underappreciated yet critical hurdle for successful cancer immunotherapy