Introduction: Chlormethine gel is a skin-directed therapy recommended for patients with early-stage mycosis fungoides (MF) cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Methods: Herein, we present three cases of patients with stage IB-IIB MF who were treated with chlormethine gel and concomitant therapies. Results: All patients responded well to treatment with chlormethine gel; complete responses were observed with improvements in Modified Severity-Weighted Assessment Tool scores and severity of lesions; one patient reported an improvement in quality of life. While adverse events did occur after treatment initiation, they were skin related and could be effectively managed through reductions in treatment frequency and the addition of emollients and topical steroids.
Conclusion:The cases presented here illustrate that chlormethine gel is an effective and safe treatment option for patients with MF who had received prior therapies that had proved ineffective. Chlormethine gel could be combined with other skin-directed or systemic therapies for optimal benefit. Incidences of dermatitis were seen to be successfully managed and quality of life benefits were also reported.
Background Chlormethine gel is a skin-directed therapy used for patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) that showed a favourable risk/benefit profile in a randomized clinical trial. Currently, data on chlormethine gel use in real-world settings are limited.Objectives The aim of this study was to assess safety and efficacy of chlormethine gel treatment in patients treated during daily clinical practice and investigate associations between response and disease stage, lesion type, mono-or combination therapy, and occurrence of dermatitis.Methods Clinical data from patients using chlormethine gel from three sites in Greece were analysed. Efficacy was assessed through modified Severity-Weighted Assessment Tool (mSWAT) scores. Safety assessments included analysis of the occurrence and severity of dermatitis. The Skindex-29 questionnaire was used for quality-of-life assessments.Results Fifty-eight patients were included. The overall response rate (ORR) increased from 37.9% at month 1 to 80.8% at month 9. For 64.2% of patients, response was maintained for at least 4 months (ORR4). At month 3, a higher ORR was seen for patients with patches (69.7%) than patients with plaques/tumours (both 15.2%). A higher ORR4 was observed for patients with early-vs late-stage disease (71.4% vs. 36.4%) and patients on mono-vs combination therapy (75% vs. 47.6%). Dermatitis was observed in the majority of patients (72.4%), but the presence or severity of dermatitis was not directly correlated with treatment response. Both mSWAT and Skindex-29 scores decreased significantly during treatment, and changes in these scores from baseline to month 6 showed a positive correlation (r = 0.55, P = 0.026).Conclusions Chlormethine gel was effective for the treatment of skin lesions in patients with early-and late-stage MF in clinical practice. Response rates increased over time, indicating that continued treatment with the gel is important.Dermatitis may be managed by reducing the treatment frequency; the occurrence of dermatitis did not affect the response to treatment.
Chlormethine is a bifunctional cytotoxic alkylating agent that binds to DNA, resulting in cell death (apoptosis). Chlormethine (also known as mechlorethamine) gel (CL gel) was approved in the European Union in 2017 and was first used in 2019. The aim of the study is to examine evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of chlormethine gel in everyday clinical experience from a cutaneous lymphoma centre. Twenty-three patients with stage IA–IIB mycosis fungoides received chlormethine gel between September 2020 and May 2021. All patients started by applying the gel daily and were monitored every month. At 1, 3, 6 and 9 months, 0%, 43.47%, 56.52% and 65.22% of patients, respectively, achieved an overall response. Five out of 23 patients (21.73%) achieved near complete response at a mean time of 6 months. Chlormethine gel was given as monotherapy in 12 patients (52.17%), and in addition to systemic treatments (methotrexate and peginterferon alpha-2a) in 11 patients (47.82%). Adverse events (AE) were recorded in 43.47% of patients, but only 3 discontinued treatment, due to dermatitis. Scale down of the treatment to application 3-times per week led to better patient compliance. This study shows that chlormethine gel is effective and safe in patients with mycosis fungoides with different types of skin lesions.
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