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Mycosis fungoides (MF), the most common cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), varies widely in symptoms and outcome. The disease may be stable and limited to the skin with no effect on life expectancy, or it may be progressive, involving extracutaneous sites and possibly leading to death. In this retrospective study of 55 patients with MF who attended a university dermatology clinic over a 16-year period, investigators compared the prognostic value of skin staging, clinical lymph node examination, and lymph node histologic examination with testing for T-cell–receptor (TCR) gene rearrangement by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and by Southern blot analysis.
At staging, 45% of patients had T1 disease, 35% had T2 disease, 7% had T3 disease, and 13%…