[Local application of interferon beta to skin lesions of malignant melanoma and malignant lymphoma--clinical and histopathological analysis].

Interferon (IFN) beta was applied locally to skin lesions of malignant melanoma (MM: 3 cases in stage IV and 1 case in stage II) and malignant lymphoma (ML: 3 cases of mycosis fungoides in stages II-III and 1 case of primary cutaneous lymphoma in stage III). It was found that IFN beta was remarkably effective for ML (3 in CR and 1 in PR), but far less effective for MM (3 in PD and 1 in NC). Biopsy specimens of clinically regressed areas revealed histopathology entirely different from each other, skin lesion of MM being infiltrated by numerous inflammatory cells such as lymphocytes and macrophages, whereas that of ML infiltrated Least. Local application of IFN beta appears to provide a new modality for treatment of cutaneous ML, which has the primary lesions on skin and has been hardly controlled by systemic chemoimmunotherapy.