Primary and secondary cutaneous lymphomas in Hong Kong Chinese

Sixty-eight Hong Kong Chinese patients with cutaneous lymphomas were studied. There were 38 males and 30 females and their median age was 52 years. According to a staging system as proposed by the Mycosis Fungoides Cooperative Group, 48 (71 per cent) of the patients had disseminated stage IV disease. There were nine (13 per cent) cases of mycosis fungoides. The remaining cases were mostly intermediate or high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas according to the Working Formulation. Immunophenotyping was performed in 23 cases and in 17 cases (74 per cent), T-cell tumours were identified. Many of these T-cell lymphomas were unclassifiable according to the Working Formulation and were either pleomorphic or immunoblastic-lymphadenopathy-like T-cell lymphoma according to a modified system of the Japanese Lymphoma Study Group. A variety of therapies were given to these patients and those with stage IV disease had a significantly poorer survival. On the other hand, the histology, and immunophenotype did not appear to be useful in predicting prognosis.