To quantify response rates of Sézary syndrome (SS) to multimodality immunomodulatory therapy and to identify the important prognostic parameters that affect overall response to treatment.

Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) are a heterogeneous group of non-Hodgkin lymphomas that are considered incurable. The role of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in the treatment of CTCL is not well defined but may provide potent graft-vs-lymphoma (GVL) activity independent of the conditioning therapy. We present outcomes of 12 extensively-pretreated patients with CTCL who underwent allogeneic HSCT using, most commonly, a reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen. Median age at diagnosis of CTCL was 49 yrs, and median time to transplantation from diagnosis was 3.3 years. Transplant induced and maintained CR in 6 patients with active disease supporting the presence of a GVL effect. Transplant related mortality was low, and 42% of patients were alive and disease-free a median duration of 22 months after transplant. Two patients showed strong and direct evidence of a GVL effect with a direct response to withdrawal of immunosuppression or to donor leukocyte infusion (DLI). Our data show that HSCT can provide long-term disease control in patients with advanced CTCL otherwise refractory to immunotherapy and chemotherapy.

Our current focus on the effects of Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) using silicon phthalocyanine Pc 4 photosensitizer on malignant T lymphocytes arose due to preclinical observations that Jurkat cells, common surrogate for human T cell lymphoma, were more sensitive to Pc 4-PDT-induced killing than epidermoid carcinoma A431 cells. Mycosis fungoides (MF) as well as Sezary syndrome (SS) are variants of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) in which malignant T-cells invade the epidermis. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxicity of Pc 4-PDT in peripheral blood cells obtained from patients with SS and in skin biopsies of patients with MF. Our data suggest that Pc 4-PDT preferentially induces apoptosis of CD4+CD7− malignant T-lymphocytes in the blood relative to CD11b+ monocytes and nonmalignant T-cells. In vivo Pc 4-PDT of MF skin also photodamages the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2.

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