Head, neck involvement tied to poor prognosis in patients with mycosis fungoides

Head and neck involvement of mycosis fungoides is a predictor of a poor prognosis, according to a recent study.

In this study, the authors sought to examine the influence of head and neck involvement on the clinicoprognostic features of mycosis fungoides. They retrospectively evaluated the clinical features and survival outcomes of patients with mycosis fungoides in a Korean academic medical centre database according to the presence of head and neck involvement at diagnosis.

Thirty-nine mycosis fungoides patients with (group A) and 85 without (group B) head and neck involvement at diagnosis were included in the analysis. There were more patients in group A with advanced-stage disease (stages IIB‒IVB) than did those in group B (43.6 percent vs 5.9 percent).

Mycosis fungoides progression, extracutaneous dissemination, and large-cell transformation occurred more frequently in group A than in group B. The 10-year overall survival rate was worse in group A than in group B (53.4 percent vs 81.6 percent; p<0.001).

Head and neck involvement at diagnosis correlated with poor prognosis in early-stage mycosis fungoides (stages IA‒IIA) and independently correlated with worse progression-free survival (hazard ratio, 24.4, 95 percent confidence interval, 2.2‒267.6; p=0.009).

“Head and neck involvement of MF was associated with a poor prognosis,” the authors said.

The study was limited by its single-centre and retrospective design.