Mycosis fungoides medical therapy

Treatments and cures
Mycosis fungoides can be treated in a variety of ways.

If treatment is successful the disease can go into a non-progressing state with clinically clear examination and various tests. This is called remission; it can last indefinitely. Treatments may also cause disease not to progress, while still present, and this is called stable disease; it may last indefinitely but is a more serious situation. Disease may also progress, to involve nodes, blood and internal organs, or transform into a higher-grade lymphoma.

Common treatments include simple sunlight, ultraviolet light, topical steroids, topical and systemic chemotherapies, local superficial radiotherapy, total skin electron beam radiation, and biological therapies (e.g. interferons, retinoids, rexinoids).Vorinostat (Zolinza®) is a second-line drug for CTCL. Application of organic (Manuka) honey to skin affected by erythorderma (red skin) has also proved to be effective in reducing inflammation. Treatments are often used in combination.

Selection of treatments typically depends on patient preference and access to therapies, as well as recommendations by physicians, the stage of the disease, established resistance to prior therapies, allergies of the patient, clinical evidence of a positive benefit:risk ratio, and so on.

It is debatable whether cures are reliably obtained through different types of treatments, but many patients experience prolonged periods of disease-control and at least half of all patients do not die from this disease, even if not truly cured. Quality of life is a major objective, in addition to cure, and maximizing periods of remission or stable disease, while minimizing treatments and toxicities, are two central concerns in clinical care.