PROVIDENCE, R.I., July 17 -- Occurrence rates for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma more than tripled from 1973 to 2002, with the rise varying by race, sex, and geographic area, researchers found.
The cause of the "alarming" climb for this rare cancer, which includes mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome, is unknown, Vincent D. Criscione, A.B., and Martin A. Weinstock, M.D., Ph.D., of Brown University and the VA Medical Center here, wrote in the July issue of the Archives of Dermatology.
A total of 4,783 new cases were diagnosed from 1973 through 2002, with an increase in each decade, they found in data from 13 population-based cancer registries of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the National Cancer Institute, representing 14% of the U.S. population.
The overall annual age-adjusted incidence of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma was 6.4 per million, with an increase in the annual incidence of 2.9 per million per decade over 30 years.
