[Diagnosis, care, and therapeutic possibilities in intravascular B-cell lymphoma--a case report]

The cutaneous angiotropic lymphoma has a poor prognosis. The diagnosis and the treatment are usually late. The mortality rate is over 80% and the majority of patients die within a year because of the tumorous infiltration of parenchymal organs. The authors report here the medical history and follow up of a still living patient suffering from cutaneous angiotropic lymphoma which has been diagnosed sixty months ago. During the successful treatment course systemic treatment with psoralen ultraviolet A-rays, chlorambucil and cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-vincristine-methylprednisolone chemotherapy was applied, and for the management of the last relapse, rituximab-cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-vincristine-methylprednisolone polychemotherapy was used. On the basis of findings in this case a treatment using an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody could be a promising therapeutic alternative in the management of angiotropic B-cell lymphoma which otherwise considered to be a rare entity.