A Descriptive Study of 103 Primary Cutaneous B-Cell Lymphomas: Clinical and Pathological Characteristics and Treatment from the Spanish Lymphoma Oncology Group (GOTEL)

Abstract

Primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (PCBCLs) are B-cell lymphomas that can occur in the skin without evidence of extracutaneous involvement. The 2005 WHO/EORTC classification of cutaneous lymphomas and its 2018 update have distinguished three main categories based on clinicopathological, immunohistochemical, and genetic characteristics: primary cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma (PCMZL), primary cutaneous follicle centre lymphoma (PCFCL), and primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, leg type (PCDLBCL-LT). PCMZL and PCFCL are clinically indolent, while PCDLBCL-LT is an aggressive lymphoma. Due to its low incidence and lack of prospective studies, it is difficult to establish a standard treatment for each subgroup. The objective of our study was to describe the clinical and pathological characteristics of 103 patients with cutaneous B-cell lymphoma from 12 centres belonging to the Spanish Lymphoma Oncology Group. The median age was 53 years (40-65). According to skin extension, 62% had single-site lymphoma, 17% had regional lymphoma, and 20% had multifocal lymphoma. Histology: 66% had PCMZL, 26% had PCFCL, and 8% had PCDLBCL-LT. Twenty-three percent of the patients were treated exclusively with surgery, 26% with radiotherapy only, 21% with surgery plus radiotherapy, 10% with polychemotherapy, and 5% with rituximab monotherapy. Overall, 96% of patients achieved a complete response, and 44% subsequently relapsed, most of them relapsing either locally or regionally. The 10-year OS was 94.5% for the entire cohort, 98% for the PCMZL cohort, 95% for the PCFCL cohort, and 85.7% for the PCDLBCL-LT cohort. Our data are comparable to those of other published series, except for the high frequency of PCMZL. The expected heterogeneity in therapeutic management has been observed.

Keywords: chemotherapy; cutaneous B lymphoma; radiotherapy; rituximab; skin; surgery.

Figure 1

Clinical characteristics of the population. (A) Distribution and mean age according to histology; (B) number of patients according to their histology.

Figure 2

Tumour characteristics. (A) Tumour primary location stratified by histology; (B) tumour skin extension stratified by histology.

Figure 3

K‒M survival curves. The top row (A–C) is stratified by tumour histology, and the bottom row (D–F) is stratified by tumour extension. (A,D) progression-free survival; (B,E) disease-specific survival; (C,F) overall survival.