Background: Treatment of early-stage mycosis fungoides (MF) consists of topical steroids, phototherapy (UVB), photochemotherapy (psoralen plus UVA [PUVA]), topical nitrogen mustard, or total skin electronbeam irradiation. It has been reported that the same effective UVB dose is safer than PUVA regarding carcinogenicity and produces fewer side effects. Narrowband UVB (311 nm) results in less irr...

Malignant tumors take up and retain hematoporphyrin to a much greater extent than do normal tissues. Porphyrins are photodynamic agents that sensitize cells so that they are damaged by exposure to light. Treatment with hematoporphyrin followed by irradiation with light can destroy glioma cells in culture in less than 8 min and gliomas growing s.c. in rats in about 40 min. Photochemotherapy may ...

The occurrence of bullous pemphigoid (BP) in patients with psoriasis has occasionally been reported. Most previously reported cases attributed the occurrence of BP in psoriasis to photochemotherapy, such as PUVA, UVA and UVB (1–4). We describe here a patient who initially had psoriasis vulgaris and subsequently developed BP after treatment with UVA for psoriasis. Histopathologic, direct immunof...

Treatment with 8-methoxypsoralen plus ultraviolet A radiation and extracorporeal photochemotherapy (photopheresis) are widely used for the treatment of psoriasis and other inflammatory skin diseases, graft-versus-host disease, and mycosis fungoides. As the ratio of Th1 and Th2 cells appears to be critical for pathogenesis and progression of these disorders the effect of psoralen plus ultraviole...

OBJECTIVE This study tests the hypothesis that stress reduction methods based on mindfulness meditation can positively influence the rate at which psoriasis clears in patients undergoing phototherapy or photochemotherapy treatment. METHODS Thirty-seven patients with psoriasis about to undergo ultraviolet phototherapy (UVB) or photochemotherapy (PUVA) were randomly assigned to one of two condi...