A trial looking at chemotherapy for people with advanced T cell lymphoma of the skin (EORTC 21012)

Cancer type:

Blood cancers

Low grade lymphoma

Lymphoma

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial looked at liposomal doxorubicin for people with an advanced T cell lymphoma of the skin called mycosis fungoides.

Cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCL) are types of non Hodgkin lymphoma that affect the skin. Mycosis fungoides is the most common of these, although it is still rare.

Doctors can use a number of different ways to treat CTCL. They usually use a combination of chemotherapy drugs to treat advanced CTCL. But this can have severe side effects.

Doctors thought that liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx, Myocet or Doxil) may work as well on its own and have fewer side effects.

The aims of this trial were to find out

How well liposomal doxorubicin worked for mycosis fungoides CTCL
More about the side effects

Summary of results

The researchers found that liposomal doxorubicin might work well for people with advanced mycosis fungoides CTCL.

This study recruited 49 people. Everyone had liposomal doxorubicin.

After completing their treatment, 20 of the 49 people had responded. Of these 20 people, for

3 there was no sign of their mycosis fungoides – complete response
17 their mycosis fungoides had shrunk – partial response

The main side effects were

The researchers concluded that liposomal doxorubicin looked promising as a treatment for mycosis fungoides CTCL. And it should be looked at in further clinical trials.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.