CTCL Lawsuit Alleges Diagnosis Came After Less Than a Year of Dupixent Use

Lawsuit states Dupixent cancer side effects will require woman to undergo medical treatments and monitoring for the rest of her life.

A Virginia woman has filed a lawsuit against the makers of the eczema drug Dupixent, alleging it only took a few injections for her to develop a life-changing form of T-cell lymphoma.

Carolnette Walker brought the complaint (PDF) in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on July 17, naming Sanofi-Aventis LLC, Genzyme Corporation and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. as the defendants.

According to the lawsuit, Walker began using Dupixent to treat atopic dermatitis in October 2023 without ever being warned that the medication could increase the risk of cancer.

Dupixent Cancer Risks

Originally designed for the treatment of atopic dermatitis, a form of eczema, Dupixent (dupilumab) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2017. However, over the years the agency has expanded the approved uses of the drug to include numerous inflammatory conditions affecting the skin and respiratory system such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other health problems caused by overactive immune systems.

The drug has faced increased scrutiny in recent years due to reports that Dupixent side effects are causing, or accelerating, the development of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). The malignancy is similar to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but primarily affects the skin.

Dupixent-linked CTCL can be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms often resemble eczema and other skin conditions the drug is intended to treat, making the cancer easy to overlook if doctors are unfamiliar with the warning signs. In some cases, patients have continued receiving Dupixent injections while their CTCL continued to progress.

Walker joins a number of plaintiffs who are pursuing Dupixent CTCL lawsuits, each alleging that the manufacturers failed to properly inform doctors or patients about the drug’s cancer risks, which would have put healthcare professionals on alert to look for early signs of the condition. Instead, they say the companies disregarded patient safety and health to increase profits.

Dupixent CTCL Allegations

According to the lawsuit, Walker began taking Dupixent injections in October 2023 for her atopic dermatitis, and continued using the drug until August 2024.

However, in February 2026, Walker was diagnosed with the most common form of CTCL, mycosis fungoides. She has since required extensive cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, phototherapy and topical medications.

Walker indicates her doctors have told her she will require ongoing medical treatment and healthcare for the rest of her life.

The lawsuit states her diagnosis was unnecessary and could have been avoided if proper warnings had been given, arguing that the manufacturer had exactly such information in its possession for years, but deceived regulators and the public about the safety of Dupixent.

“At the time Plaintiff, Carolnette Walker was first prescribed Dupixent, the available scientific data were adequate to put Defendants on notice that there existed reasonable evidence of causal association between Dupixent and development and progression of CTCL.”

– Carolnette Walker v. Sanofi-Aventis LLC et al.

Before November of 2018, less than two years after Dupixent had been placed on the market, the manufacturers were aware of at least 10 reports of Dupixent patients developing CTCL. That number has continued to increase over the years, with more than 200 cases reported by the end of 2024.

Walker indicates that, despite multiple calls for additional testing into Dupixent-induced CTCL, the manufacturers failed to allocate appropriate resources to investigate the problem. She claims the companies have still not placed an appropriate warning on the drug’s label.

The lawsuit presents claims of failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligent misrepresentation. It seeks both compensatory and punitive damages.

Dupixent CTCL Lawsuits

Walker’s complaint will be consolidated with other Dupixent cancer lawsuits in the District of New Jersey before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL). Judge Quraishi has been appointed to oversee coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings for the centralized litigation.

The judge is eventually expected to order the parties to prepare several representative cases to serve as potential bellwether trial candidates. These trials will give plaintiffs and defendants the opportunity to see how juries respond to evidence and testimony that would be repeated throughout the litigation.

The outcomes of these trials are not binding on other Dupixent CTCL lawsuits, but the results could have a significant impact on any settlement negotiations. However, if the sides do not reach a settlement agreement or otherwise resolve the litigation by the end of the bellwether trials, Judge Quraishi could begin remanding the cases back to their original federal district courts for individual trial dates.

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