tangirl

This story was on my local news last night. The doctor claimed that tanning beds were bad for you, yet she also says that tanning beds are an effective treatment for T-Cell Lymphoma.

It's A Cancer Most Doctors Don't Know To Look For And there's a treatment you'd never expect

12/28/2001

By Janice Williamson / 11 News

It's a disease so rare, even many doctors have never heard of it. And it could help researchers unlock the mysteries of the immune system.

In the surf and in the sun is where Leslie French spent most of her vacations. "We went to the beach or just laying out by the pool," French said.

But in her early 30's French decided to heed the warnings and cover up when she was out in the sun. That's when her skin began to change. She began to notice little red spots.

She worried her days of laying by the pool had come back to haunt her and said, "I knew there was something different about them. There was no uniformity, they weren't consistent and whenever I touched them they would send sensations up my arm or the side of my body."

For a year she was treated by a dermatologist. "Biopsies, cortisone injections, steroid injections, topical creams and they would disappear briefly. But they would always reappear," French remembered.

What Leslie French would soon discover is the very thing she was trying so hard to avoid was in fact her greatest ally.

At M.D. Anderson she was diagnosed with cancer. Not of the skin, but of the blood. A cancer called Lymphomatoid Papulosis or LYP.

Dr. Madeleine Duvic with M.D. Anderson Hospital said, "It's very, very rare. Probably less than one in a million people. It's often misdiagnosed because the lesions look like mosquito bites."

Dr. Duvic uses huge amounts of U.V. rays, machine generated sunshine to treat the disease.

"Tanning beds are bad for you but this light kills the T-cells so we use it therapeutically," explained Dr. Duvic.

It's an over abundance of T-cells which doctors believe make the lesions appear. But no one knows what causes LYP or why patients, over time, go into remission even without treatment.

Dr. Duvic said, "The T-cells are actually committing suicide within the lesion and that's why they're going away. If we can harness that ability we could use it to treat T-cell Lymphoma."

Without a $2,000 tube of creme Leslie French's lesions take longer to disappear.

When she was first diagnosed she spent a lot of time doing research on a disease no one, not even many doctors had ever heard of. Ten years later it still can't be found in some medical dictionaries.

A decade after her diagnosis French takes comfort in knowing the disease is not hereditary. And makes every minute count with her niece, Georgy. Life she believes is what you make of it, even if a mysterious disease is a constant companion.

Lymphomatoid Papulosis is a chronic disease, not a deadly one. But those who have it do have a greater chance of getting other types of Lymphoma, which can kill.

Don Smith

Tangirl:

The treatment protocol for T-Cell Lymphoma utilizes UVA1 (340 - 400 nm) wavelengths. These same wavelengths are also used to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) and certain other conditions.

The broad spectrum (280 - 400 nm) wavelengths that are found in tanning beds are contraindicated for both of these conditions (and any other utilizing UVA1 wavelengths).

Hope this helps.

Don