Extracorporeal photochemotherapy: a case report and update

Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) was developed at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in the early 1980s for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). ECP is now used primarily in the treatment of that disease at more than 100 centers worldwide. It also has been shown to be potentially effective in treating several autoimmune diseases. Most recently, it has been used in reversing solid-organ transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease following bone-marrow transplantation. In this article, we present the case of one of the first patients treated with ECP and give an update on the current status of this therapy.