The regulatory T-cell phenotype in progressive mycosis fungoides.

In early stages mycosis fungoides (MF) often runs an indolent course. Nevertheless a small but significant part of these patients develop an aggressive, life threatening course. These patients usually were immunocompromised. In most of those cases the lymphoma cells express CD25. This raised the question if those lymphomas may express a regulatory phenotype. Recently a couple of in vitro and in vivo studies analyzed this issue with different methods. This review discusses the recent developments in this highly topical area of research.