Cutaneous lymphoproliferative disorders after COVID-19 vaccination: clinical presentation, histopathology, and outcomes

Abstract

Individual reports described lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs) after COVID-19 vaccination; however, the relationship between cases is unexamined. We aim to determine if there are cases of cutaneous LPDs associated with COVID-19 vaccination and their outcomes. We present a review of world literature, vaccine registries, and two unreported cases of LPDs after COVID-19 vaccination. Review of the medical literature, VAERS, and our two cases reveal predominance of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, younger patients, and males. All cases resulted in favorable outcomes. Approximately 84% of cases demonstrated CD30+ positivity in their skin biopsies, suggesting that an antigenic trigger may lead to a type IV adaptive immune response, with clonal expansion of CD30+ T-cells and subsequent oncogenic mutational hits eventuating in transient LPDs. LPDs after COVID-19 vaccination appear in the context of the same vaccines (proportionally to their global market shares), share clinical and pathological findings, and have indolent, self-limited character.

Keywords:

• Cutaneous lymphoproliferative disorder
• lymphomatoid papulosis
• CD4+ small/medium sized pleomorphic T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder
• cutaneous lymphoma
• COVID-19 vaccine
• vaccination reaction
• cutaneous reactions
• vaccine mechanism
• vaccine-associated lymphoproliferative disorder

Ethics

Consent for the publication of all patient photographs and medical information was provided by the authors at the time of article submission to the journal stating that all patients gave consent for their photographs and medical information to be published in print and online and with the understanding that this information may be publicly available. This study was exempt from IRB review.

Disclosure statement

LJG has served as an investigator for and/or received research support from Helsinn Group, J&J, Mallinckrodt, Kyowa Kirin, Soligenix, Innate, Merck, BMS, and Stratpharma; on the speakers’ bureau for Helsinn Group and J&J; and on the scientific advisory board for Helsinn Group, J&J, Mallinckrodt, Sanofi, Regeneron, and Kyowa Kirin. ERG, BDK, CMS, LMF, OA, DQ, MHT, CMM have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Data statement

The data underlying this article are available in the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.