Cutaneous Lymphomas: Single Institution Experience in Lima-Peru.

Background: The clinicopathologic characteristics of malignant lymphomas may vary according to geography. We previously described Adult T -cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATLL) cases associated with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I (HTLV-I) in their different clinical presentation: acute, lymphomatous, chronic and smoldering and the recently primary cutaneous subtype in Peru (

Methods: We conducted a clinicopathologic retrospective study of primary cutaneous lymphomas diagnosed from 1997 to 2004 in our General Hospital. Clinical records, haematoxylin & eosin-stained slides and immunohistochemical stains from 78 patients were reviewed. HTLV-1 serology was made using ELISA and Western Blot method. The statistical method was descriptive and survival was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: The mean age at time of presentation was 62 years and the female/male ratio 1,5:1. T-cell lymphomas were 88.6% and 11.4% were B-cell lymphomas. Eight-six percent (67/78) were primary cutaneous lymphomas and fourteen percent (11/78) were secondary cutaneous lymphomas. The most frequent primary cutaneous lymphomas was mycosis fungoides (MF): 44.7% (30/67); cutaneous / smoldering ATLL sutypes included 13/67 (19.4%) patients; unspecified peripheral T-cell lymphoma 4/67 (6%), lymphomatoid papulosis 2/67 (3%), leg-type diffuse large B-cell lymphoma 2/67 (3%), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma 2/67 (3%), subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma 2/67 (3%), one case of the following lymphomas: anaplastic large cell, Sézary syndrome, nasal type extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, follicle center lymphoma and intravascular lymphoma; finally unclassifiable lymphomas 5/67 (7.4%). Most frequent secondary cutaneous lymphomas were acute and lymphomatous subtypes of ATLL with 72% of the cases. Five-years overall survival for MF was 77%. The 5-years overall survival for primary cutaneous ATLL lymphomas was 18% and 0% for the secondary cutaneous ATLL group.

Conclusions: In this retrospective analysis, both ATLL and MF are the most frequent cutaneous lymphomas in our General Hospital. ATLL has a poor overall survival.