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Background Early-stage mycosis fungoides (MF) includes involvement of dermatopathic lymph nodes (LNs) or early lymphomatous LNs. There is a lack of unanimity among current guidelines regarding the indications for initial staging imaging in early-stage presentation of MF in the absence of enlarged palpable LNs. Objectives To investigate how often imaging is performed in patients with early-stage presentation of MF, to assess the yield of LN imaging, and to determine what disease characteristics promoted imaging. Methods A review of clinicopathologically confirmed newly diagnosed patients with cutaneous patch/plaque (T1/T2) MF from PROspective Cutaneous Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (PROCLIPI) data. Results PROCLIPI enrolled 375 patients with stage T1/T2 MF: 304 with classical MF and 71 with folliculotropic MF. Imaging was performed in 169 patients (45%): 83 with computed tomography, 18 with positron emission tomography-computed tomography and 68 with ultrasound. Only nine of these (5%) had palpable enlarged (>= 15 mm) LNs, with an over-representation of plaques, irrespectively of the 10% body surface area cutoff that distinguishes T1 from T2. Folliculotropic MF was not more frequently imaged than classical MF. Radiologically enlarged LNs (>= 15 mm) were detected in 30 patients (18%); only seven had clinical lymphadenopathy. On multivariate analysis, plaque presentation was the sole parameter significantly associated with radiologically enlarged LNs. Imaging of only clinically enlarged LNs upstaged 4% of patients (seven of 169) to at least IIA, whereas nonselective imaging upstaged another 14% (24 of 169). LN biopsy, performed in eight of 30 patients, identified N3 (extensive lymphomatous involvement) in two and N1 (dermatopathic changes) in six. Conclusions Physical examination was a poor determinant of LN enlargement or involvement. Presence of plaques was associated with a significant increase in identification of enlarged or involved LNs in patients with early-stage presentation of MF, which may be important when deciding who to image. Imaging increases the detection rate of stage IIA MF, and identifies rare cases of extensive lymphomatous nodes, upstaging them to advanced-stage IVA2.

RC is a consultant for Kyowa Kirin and served on an advisory board for Helsinn. JJS is a consultant for Kyowa Kirin, Takeda, Recordat, 4SC, Innate Pharma and Helsinn. She received a 1-year educational grant from Kyowa Kirin for work on quality of life in CTCL. She also has membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees for Kyowa Kirin, Takeda, 4SC, Innate Pharma, Miragen and Helsinn. PLZ has received honoraria from MSD, Celltrion, Gilead, Janssen-Cilag, BMS and TG Therapeutics. He is also a consultant for MSD, EUSA Pharma, Sanofi and Verastem. He also has membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees for MSD, Eusa Pharma, Celltrion, Gilead, Janssen-Cilag, BMS, Servier, Sandoz, Immune Design, Celgene, Portola, Roche, Kyowa Kirin, TG Therapeutics, and Verastem. He has also been on a Speakers Bureau for MSD, EUSA Pharma, Celltrion, Gilead, Janssen-Cilag, BMS, Servier, Immune Design, Celgene, Portola, Roche, Kyowa Kirin and Verastem. JPN has received honoraria from Pharmaceutical Industries, TEVA, Novartis AG, Biogen GmbH, Almirall Hermal AG, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, UCB Pharma, LaRoche Posay, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Kyowa Kirin. He is also a consultant for Novartis AG, Biogen GmbH, Almirall Hermal AG, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Innate Pharma, Kyowa Kirin and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He has also received grants and personal fees from Pharmaceutical Industries outside of the submitted work. LS is a consultant for Dren Bio and served on an advisory board for Kyowa Kirin, Kymera Therapeutics and EUSA Pharma. LP-B has been an advisory board for Epizyme, Morphosys, Helsinn, Verastem and Actelion. She is also a consultant for Acrotech. PQ has received honoraria from Actelion, Innate Pharma, Takeda, Kyowa Kirin, Helsinn and Therakos. He also been on an advisory board for Actelion, Innate Pharma, Takeda, Kyowa Kirin, Helsinn and Therakos. LI has served as a consultant and/or paid speaker for and/or participated in clinical trials sponsored by AbbVie, Almirall, Amgen, AstraZeneca, BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Centocor, Eli Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Kyowa Kirin, LEO Pharma, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Sun Pharma and UCB. RD is a consultant for Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Amgen, Takeda, Pierre Fabre, Sun Pharma, Sanofi, Catalym and Second Genome. AM is an investigator for Menlo, Soligenix, Pfizer, Elorac and miRagen. She has also received honoraria from Kyowa Kirin. She also has a membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees for Helsinn. FF has received honoraria from Seagen, Mallinckrodt and Kyowa Kirin. She is also a consultant for Miragen. She had also served on a Data Safety Monitoring Board for Celgene. She was also the President of the US Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium. TI is an employee of Kyowa Kirin, Inc. J-PR is an employee of Kyowa Kirin, Inc. MCM is an employee of Kyowa Kirin, Inc.

Summary Mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sézary syndrome (SS) are the best‐studied subtypes of cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma. The level of blood tumour burden in patients is important for diagnosis, disease staging, prognosis and management, as well as assessing treatment response. Until recently, the assessment of blood involvement was made using manual counts of morphologically atypical T cells (Sézary cells), but this approach may be subjective, and is affected by interobserver variability. Objective and consistent approaches to accurately quantifying blood involvement are required to ensure appropriate stage‐related management of patients and to improve our understanding of the prognostic implications of blood tumour burden in these diseases. While assessment of blood involvement is common in SS and advanced‐stage MF, an improved understanding of the implications of blood involvement at early disease stages could help identify patients more likely to progress to late‐stage disease, and hence guide treatment decisions and frequency of follow‐up assessment, ultimately improving patient outcomes. This concise review discusses the development of flow cytometry‐based classifications for assessing blood involvement in MF and SS, and summarizes current recommendations for blood classification and assessment of blood response to treatment.