Duration of symptoms does not correlate with results of T-cell gene rearrangement studies in patients evaluated for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine if clonality on T-cell gene rearrangement studies correlated with duration of cutaneous symptoms in patients with skin disease who are being evaluated for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Specifically, our goal was to determine if symptom duration could help better optimize sample selection for T-cell gene rearrangement studies. METHODS: Biopsies were reviewed from patients within both general dermatology clinic and CTCL specialty clinic for clonality results in relation to disease duration. RESULTS: We did not find an association between duration and clonality in any group. CONCLUSIONS: The yield of T-cell gene rearrangement studies is similar between shorter and longer duration of disease implying that there is not an optimal duration range in which T-cell gene rearrangement studies are more likely to give a positive result.