Background. Although techniques of immunophenotyping have been successful in characterizing the cells in the cutaneous infiltrates of mycosis fungoides little evidence suggests that variations in the phenotypic characterization correlate with prognosis. Objectives. In a preliminary prospective, single-centre, study we correlated the T-cell phenotype in cutaneous biopsies with the progression of the disease to determine whether the coexpression of CD4 and CD8 has an impact on prognosis. Methods. Skin biopsy specimens from 30 newly diagnosed patients were stained with immunoperoxidase techniques to determine their phenotypic characteristics. After a median followup of 42 months patients were divided into two groups with stable and progressive disease. Results. Eighteen patients had the conventional CD4+CD8？ T-cell phenotype. Ten patients showed the coexpression of CD4 and CD8 and had a slightly lower rate of progressive disease. Conclusions. The coexpression of CD4 and CD8 in cutaneous lesions is not rare and is associated with a slightly lower rate of progressive disease. Since double positive CD4/CD8 phenotype is rarely reported in mycosis fungoides the presence on conventional immunophenotyping of both CD may be due to a “mixture” of neoplastic cells and inflammatory CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. Immunohistochemical study combined with confocal microscopy could clarify this issue. 1. Introduction Mycosis fungoides (MF) represents the prototype of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, which is defined as clonal expansion of skin-homing T lymphocytes [1]. The natural history of MF is characterized by an indolent progression through four stages: patch, plaque, tumor, and visceral involvement. The disease begins with lightly erythematous patches that subsequently evolve into well-demarcated scaling plaques. These plaques may then progress to tumor lesions and subsequently spread to the viscera, but this progression is not necessarily seen in all patients [2]. MF is classified into clinical stages using the TNM classification. Previous studies of prognostic indicators have shown that the skin (T) stage and the presence or absence of extracutaneous disease are the most important determinants of outcome. Patients with limited skin involvement (T1) have a favorable prognosis, whereas patients with tumor (T3) or erythrodermic MF (T4) have an unfavorable prognosis [3, 4]. The diagnosis of MF relies on histopathological examination of skin biopsies [5]. Usually, MF is characterized by an infiltrate of α/β T helper memory lymphocytes ( F1+, CD3+, CD4+, CD5+, CD8？, and
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