Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma is a rare type of cancer that can have symptoms similar to eczema or psoriasis in its early stages. It develops slowly and patients often ignore its symptoms. However, you should carefully monitor changes in the skin in order to identify the symptoms of the disease in the first stage and consult a dermatologist.
The first symptoms of this disease usually appear between the ages of 40 and 60 and are more common in men than in women. They often look innocent. Only in the later stages of the disease are essential. Then the skin becomes covered with bumps, ulcerations or becomes evenly red, which is accompanied by intense itching.
The first symptoms of skin lymphoma
The first symptoms of cutaneous lymphoma are local symptoms. This is most often:
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skin erythema,
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exfoliation of the epidermis (as in psoriasis),
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skin itch,
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thinning and flabbiness of the skin,
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keratosis of the hands and feet,
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hair loss,
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nail color change
How is cutaneous lymphoma diagnosed?
To determine if a patient has the disease, the doctor takes a biopsy from the skin lesion and performs a histopathological examination. However, the procedure does not always give the answer the first time. In people with early-stage T-cell lymphoma, the infiltrate is a mixture of inflammatory and tumor cells. For this reason, the histopathological picture may be ambiguous. This requires additional skin biopsies. However, if the alarming symptoms have been present for a long time, tests have already been carried out and the cause of the problem has not been clarified, you can contact organizations and foundations involved, for example, in rare diseases, which will help to carry out further diagnostics. patient.
Treatment of cutaneous lymphoma
The prognosis for treatment depends on the subtype of cancer and the stage at which it was discovered. Skin lymphomas are incurable diseases, but treatment, if started early enough, can lead to long periods of remission and improve the patient’s quality of life. In the case of T-cell lymphoma, the least aggressive treatments are recommended in the early stages of the disease. Local preparations and phototherapy are used. In more advanced cases or in the absence of a response to previous therapy, systemic treatment is initiated, which is subjected to the entire body of the patient. He uses mainly chemotherapy, as well as immunotherapy and hormone therapy.
Source: Wprost
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