Evaluation of demographic and clinical characteristics of 728 patients with mycosis fungoides and their relationship with systemic comorbidities: multicenter, registry-based (MF-TR) study from Türkiye

BACKGROUND: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most common cutaneous lymphoma with a chronic disease course. MF patients may also suffer from systemic comorbidities such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. METHODS: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical features of MF patients registered in the MF-TR registry system and to examine the relationship of these features with systemic comorbidities. We collected the data from the medical files of the patients via the MF-TR registry system. RESULTS: Our study included 728 patients with MF, of which 396 (54.40%) were male and 332 (45.60%) were female. The most common additional systemic disease observed was hypertension, affecting 124 (17.03%) patients. This was followed by multinodular goiter in 66 (9.06%) patients, and diabetes mellitus type 2 in 61 (8.37%) patients. Twenty-two (3.02%) patients had a history of another secondary malignancy, with lung cancer being the most common type, affecting 5 (0.68%) patients. Female gender and high BMI were statistically higher in MF patients with asthma (P=0.019 and P=0.031, respectively). In patients with hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, the duration of diagnosis was significantly longer (P=0.013 and P=0.047, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Dermatologists should be aware of these accompanying comorbidities in patients with MF. Multidisciplinary evaluation should be performed in the follow-up, if necessary.