[Management of mycosis fungoide : focus on brentuximab vedotin]

Recently, brentuximab vedotin (BV) (Adcetris®) obtained the reimbursement in Belgium for the treatment of the primary cutaneous NKT-cell lymphomas mycosis fungoides (MF), large cell anaplastic lymphoma and lymphomatoid papulosis type A. BV is a monoclonal antibody directed against the CD30 expressed on tumoral T cells. The inhibition of this pathway releases the process of apoptosis leading to the cell death of the tumoral cells. BV is reimbursed after the use of another systemic treatment without success and if the number of CD30 positive atypical T-cells is larger than 10 %. BV is administered intravenously every 3 weeks with a dosing of 1,8 mg/kg with a maximum of 16 courses. The response rates exceed 75 %. In some instances, interesting treatment responses have been observed with BV in CD30 negative patients. The principal adverse effects are neutropenia and peripheral neuropathy. Two patients are presented with longstanding multi-resistant MF that were successfully treated with BV.