Cutaneous Lymphoma Treatment | Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute

How is Cutaneous lymphoma treated at Miami Cancer Institute?

Our team has the experience it takes to diagnose your condition and provide the most effective treatments. Together, we can improve your symptoms — along with your confidence and quality of life.

We offer the full range of treatment options, including:

Topical medicines. Creams or gels applied to the skin include steroids to reduce inflammation and retinoids to slow skin cell growth. We also offer topical chemotherapy (chemotherapy cream), which kills cancer cells in the top layer of your skin.
Systemic medicines. Certain oral (taken by mouth), injectable and IV medications attack cancer cells inside your body or help calm your immune system. These include biologics, which slow or stop inflammation, and immunotherapy medicines that help your immune system fight cancer. We also offer traditional chemotherapy medicines that kill cancer cells.
Light therapy. With this treatment, also called phototherapy, we use ultraviolet (UV) light to kill the cancerous cells in your skin. This treatment works especially well because the cells that cause cutaneous lymphoma are sensitive to UV light.
Radiation therapy. Different types of radiation kill cancer cells. Many people with cutaneous lymphoma benefit from a type of radiation treatment called total skin electron beam therapy. With this procedure, we use a machine to send radiation beams to targeted areas of your skin.
Photopheresis. During this procedure, we remove blood from your body and treat it with a special medicine that’s activated by UV light. We expose the blood containing this medication to UV light, then return it to your body.
Stem cell transplant for severe cases of CTCL. This procedure targets stem cells (cells that help your body create new blood cells). We replace your cancerous stem cells — or stem cells damaged by cancer treatments — with healthy ones. These healthy new stem cells make your immune system stronger.
Clinical trials. We’re currently recruiting patients for clinical trials of new treatments for severe, refractory (hard to treat) CTCL.

The number of treatments and how often you’ll need them depends on several factors. These include the type of cutaneous lymphoma you have and whether or not it’s spread beyond your skin. We also assess the type and severity of your symptoms.

For many patients, we start with frequent or aggressive treatments, then taper them down as symptoms begin to improve. Over time, you may shift to routine maintenance treatments that help keep your symptoms from flaring up.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is an advanced cancer treatment that helps your body’s immune system fight cancer. It can be an effective way to treat blood disorders and is one of the most promising innovations available today for the treatment, cure and prevention of certain blood cancers like multiple myeloma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin disease.

Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Bone marrow is the tissue inside your bones that produces red and white blood cells and platelets. If you experience a blood disorder, a bone marrow transplant, also known as a stem cell transplant, can be used to replace your damaged blood cells with healthy, blood-forming stem cells.

The Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation program at Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida provides advanced treatment options to patients with blood cancers like leukemia, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin disease, or Hodgkin lymphoma.

Tumor Board

A multidisciplinary team of cancer experts including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, plastic reconstructive surgeons, pathologists, radiologists, genetic counselors, medical geneticists, social workers, patient navigators and clinical trials staff meet weekly to discuss select complex cases and determine the best course of care.

Clinical Trials

Clinical Trials

Miami Cancer Institute can provide access to clinical trials not widely available elsewhere. Clinical trials find new ways to treat and diagnose cancer and are ongoing. If an appropriate trial is available, we will talk to you about the benefits and risks.

Contact Us

For more information or a referral to our program, contact Gabbie Dill, R.N., or Carmen Carvajal, R.N., using one of the following options: