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CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Dermatology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1544912
Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma associated with biological therapy: three cases and literature review
Provisionally accepted- 1Peking University Third Hospital, Haidian, China
- 2Tianjin People's Hospital, Tianjin, China
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Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) often presents with early-stage clinical features indistinguishable from atopic dermatitis (AD),posing significant diagnostic challenges. Recent studies have highlighted cases where patients initially diagnosed with AD and treated with biologic agents were subsequently reclassified as having CTCL, though the nature of this relationship remains poorly understood. In this report, we present two cases of mycosis fungoides and one case of Sézary syndrome, all initially diagnosed as AD and treated with biologics, including dupilumab. Furthermore, we conducted a literature review exploring potential associations between AD, biologics, and CTCL. Our objective is to improve clinicians' ability to differentiate between AD and CTCL and provide evidence supporting a possible association between biologic treatments and CTCL. Our findings underscore the need for heightened clinical vigilance and routine use of skin biopsy in refractory eczematous presentations.
Keywords: cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, biologics, atopic dermatitis, Dupilumab, JAK inhibitor
Received: 13 Dec 2024; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wang, Zhang, Wang, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yimeng Wang, Peking University Third Hospital, Haidian, China
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