Pagetoid reticulosis in a prepubescent boy successfully treated with photodynamic therapy

Abstract

Pagetoid reticulosis or Woringer-Kolopp disease (WKD) is a rare variant of mycosis fungoides, consisting of localized patches or plaques containing intraepidermal proliferations of neoplastic T cells in a pagetoid distribution (similar to that of the adenocarcinomatous cells found in Paget disease of the nipple), which typically affects middle-aged and elderly men. We report a trial of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical aminolaevulinic acid (ALA), carried out on a 10-year-old boy with a solitary lesion of WKD on his foot, to avoid the long-term problems associated with the typical treatments for WKD of surgery and/or local irradiation. The plaque progressively flattened during treatment, and after nine PDT sessions over 13 months, the patient was clinically free of disease. PDT may be a viable alternative to surgery and local irradiation for localized cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, including WKD, especially in younger patients.