The Oncologist, Vol. 11, No. 8, 957, September 2006; doi:10.1634/theoncologist.11-8-957
© 2006 AlphaMed Press
In Reply
Jennifer R. Brown
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Correspondence:
Jennifer R. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St. D1B18, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. Telephone: 617-632-4894; Fax: 617-582-7909 e-mail: jbrown2{at}partners.org
Received June 28, 2006;
accepted for publication July 10, 2006.
In their letter, Gruber et al. [1] present data on the significant risk for lymphoma development in patients with lymphomatoid papulosis. Given this risk, they conclude that treatments are needed to prevent the development of systemic lymphoma. However, it should be noted that no currently available treatment for lymphomatoid papulosis has been shown to alter the natural history of the disease [2]. Furthermore, by analogy to indolent B-cell lymphomas, therapy does not appear to alter the risk for transformation to a more aggressive histology [3]. Unfortunately, therefore, more aggressive therapy of lymphomatoid papulosis may not prevent the development of aggressive lymphoma.
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DISCLOSURE OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
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The author indicates no potential conflicts of interest.
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REFERENCES
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- Gruber R, Sepp NT, Fritsch PO et al. Prognosis of lymphomatoid papulosis. The Oncologist 2006;11:955957.[Free Full Text]
- Willemze R, Jaffe ES, Burg G et al. WHO-EORTC classification for cutaneous lymphomas. Blood 2005;105:37683785.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Horning SJ, Rosenberg SA. The natural history of initially untreated low-grade non-Hodgkins lymphomas. N Engl J Med 1984;311:14711475.[Abstract]
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