Total skin electron irradiation: efficacy in early mycosis fungoides.

The rare, indolent, but lethal malignancy, mycosis fungoides (MF), is amenable to durable remissions if treated topically at an early stage with nitrogen mustard, PUVA, or radiotherapy. A modification of conventional therapeutic irradiation which utilizes electron beams rather than photons, has been in use since 1951. This method, termed total skin electron irradiation (TSEI), has achieved consistently good CR rates (95-100%) at a variety of centres in the U.S.A., England, France, and Italy, despite troublesome differences in staging systems. In northern Israel we have treated 37 MF patients with TSEI during the past 13 years. All 21 of our early stage patients achieved CR, which is no longer regarded as an unusual result. However, most workers in the field acknowledge that issues of optimal dosing and curative potency remain unresolved.