ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Studies demonstrating the potential utility of reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) have been performed under experimental conditions. OBJECTIVE: To provide an overview of RCM practice in real-life. METHODS: A multicenter, prospective study carried out in 10 university dermatology departments in France. RESULTS: Overall, 410 patients were enrolled. One-half of the patients (48%) were referred by private practice dermatologists. They were referred for diagnosis (84.9%) or presurgical mapping (13%). For diagnosis, the lesions were located on the face (62%), arms and legs (14.9%), and trunk (13.6%), and presurgical mapping was almost exclusively on the face (90.9%). Among those referred for diagnosis, the main indication was suspicion of a skin tumor (92.8%). Of these, 50.6% were spared biopsies after RCM. When RCM indicated surgery, histology revealed malignant lesions in 72.7% of cases. The correlation between RCM and histopathology was high, with a correlation rate of 82.76% and a kappa coefficient of 0.73 (0.63; 0.82). LIMITATIONS: This study was performed in the settings of French tertiary referral hospitals. CONCLUSION: This study shows that in real-life RCM can be integrated into the workflow of a public private network, which enables a less invasive diagnostic procedure for patients.
Subject(s)
Microscopy, Confocal , Skin Neoplasms , Humans , Prospective Studies , France , Microscopy, Confocal/methods , Microscopy, Confocal/statistics & numerical data , Female , Male , Skin Neoplasms/pathology , Skin Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging , Skin Neoplasms/diagnosis , Middle Aged , Aged , Adult , Aged, 80 and over , Young Adult , Adolescent , Private Practice/statistics & numerical data , Skin Diseases/pathology , Skin Diseases/diagnosis , Skin Diseases/diagnostic imaging , Referral and Consultation/statistics & numerical data , Biopsy/statistics & numerical data , Dermatology/methods , Dermatology/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
Aggressive primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas include advanced-stage mycosis fungoides (stage ≥ IIB mycosis fungoides), Sézary syndrome, gamma/delta cutaneous lymphoma, nasal type lymphoma, aggressive epidermotropic CD8+ T-cell lymphoma and some cutaneous lymphomas not otherwise specified. To evaluate their long-term prognosis, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of 85 patients diagnosed between 2005 and 2020 with advanced-stage mycosis fungoides (n = 48), Sézary syndrome (n = 28) or aggressive non-mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome subtypes (n = 9). The median survival times in these 3 groups were 118.7, 45.7 and 11.2 months, respectively, and the 5-year survival rates were 55.3%, 27.8% and 33.3%, respectively. Multivariate analyses in patients with mycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome identified age ≥ 70 years, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status ≥ 2, and the high-risk group according to the Cutaneous Lymphoma International Consortium prognostic model, as adverse prognostic factors. Seven patients in this mycosis fungoides/ Sézary syndrome group were in complete long-term remission after treatment with bexarotene, including 4 patients living without any treatment for 16-101 months.