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Every dated change on the records linked to Primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma, newest first: approvals and regulatory steps on its medicines, trials that reported, guideline versions, milestones, and when this page itself was checked. Dates come from the records; none is inferred. Orientation, not medical advice.
The diagnosis cannot be made on the biopsy alone, because the cells look identical to those of systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma. It requires staging that shows no disease outside the skin, and a clinical history: how long the lesion has been there, whether others have come and gone, and whether the person has lymphomatoid papulosis or mycosis fungoides, which coexist with it. An ALK-positive skin tumour is usually systemic disease that has reached the skin, and is staged and treated as such.
WHO-HAEM5 groups primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma under the primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas, acknowledging its relationship to them and its favourable outcome in contrast to systemic ALK-negative disease.
Low-dose weekly methotrexate for disease that keeps recurring in many places. Brentuximab vedotin for widespread or extracutaneous disease: ALCANZA randomised patients with CD30-positive mycosis fungoides or primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma to brentuximab vedotin against the physician's choice of methotrexate or bexarotene, and the figures are on the cutaneous T-cell lymphoma page. Combination chemotherapy is reserved for disease outside the skin: it produces short remissions and real harm in a disease otherwise controlled for decades, and over-treatment is the commonest avoidable harm here.
Surgical excision or local radiotherapy. Both work; the choice is made on the site, the size and what will heal well. Lesions recur in a substantial proportion of patients, 42 per cent in the Stanford series, and recurrence in the skin is expected rather than a treatment failure: it is treated the same way again. Up to a quarter of lesions regress partly or completely without any treatment, so observing a lesion that is already shrinking is reasonable.
A panel from the EORTC, the International Society for Cutaneous Lymphomas and the United States Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium set out treatment recommendations for the CD30-positive skin lymphoproliferative disorders and noted that most published evidence is small retrospective series.