Women More Susceptible to Early-Onset Mycosis Fungoides

After examining data from over 1000 patients over an 18 year span, researchers from Houston’s University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center concluded that women (whites, blacks and Hispanics) are more likely than men to have the most common type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma prior to turning 40 years old: early-onset mycosis fungoides.

Also known as Alibert-Bazin syndrome, mycosis fungoides is a highly treatable type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that affects the skin.

The research was published in February’s Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology

The most alarming observation was how much more further the mycosis fungoides had progressed in black women compared to white or Hispanic women—a phenomenon for which the researchers could not provide a clear answer, writing “Our clinical experience suggests that young women with aggressive mycosis fungoides … should be considered for allogenic transplantation, and that finding a match for African American patients may pose a significant challenge.”

Regardless, they concluded that making any sort of generalizations about prevalence and prognosis of mycosis fungoides is a sketchy proposition at best, and is likely most useful in “risk stratification and therapy choice."