Control of polycythaemia vera with photochemotherapy in a patient with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

We report the use of photochemotherapy in a patient with polycythaemia vera (PV) and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). The patient was diagnosed with PV and required monthly phlebotomy. Subsequently he was diagnosed with CTCL and was started on photochemotherapy. A clinical improvement in both conditions, with haematocrit stabilizing at a level of 50%, eliminated the need for further phlebotomy. It is conceiveable that photochemotherapy induced the clinical and laboratory improvement in PV by targeting the aberrant clonal haemopoietic cell, similar to the mechanism thought to be operative in CTCL, a clonal helper T cell malignancy.