Suggested Guidelines for the Treatment of Mycosis Fungoides in Countries with Limited Resources

Table 1

Available topical treatment for MF/SS in Egypt.

Topical treatment	Type of the study	Stage	Response rate, duration of remission	OCEBM
Corticosteroid [20]	Prospective (uncontrolled)	IA-IB	IA–IB 94%	Level 3
Tazarotene gel [23] (refractory lesions)	Prospective open-label	Early patch <20% BSA	58% achieved at least a moderate (>50%) global improvement in BSA	Level 3
Tazarotene cream (monotherapy) [25]	Prospective open-label	IA to IIA	60% CR, for 6 months in 83%	Level 3
Moisturizer [31]	RCT for peldesine vs placebo (mechanism-based)	IA to IIA	28% vs 24% placebo	Level 5
Gentian violet	In vitro [27] case report [28]	CTCL lines IB	4–6 apoptosis in CTCL lines > normal KC PR	Level 5

OCEBM: Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, BSA: body surface area, CR: complete response, RCT: randomized controlled trial, CTCL: cutaneous T cell lymphoma, KC: keratinocyte, PR: partial response.