News & Publications

Another study (this one from Spain) documenting the striking utility of PET/CT scanning in MCC, particularly at baseline, when we strongly advocate for this technology. Staging and management were altered in a large proportion of patients.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin cancer that occurs in elderly patients. The risk of MCC is increased by immunosuppression due to conditions such as human immunodeficiency virus infection, hematological malignancies, and organ transplantation. These risk factors can also be ...

Just like humans, cats and dogs can get Merkel cell carcinoma. And just like in humans, it is unclear what type of cell in the skin gives rise to MCC, though a precursor skin cell seems most likely. Unlike in humans, there is no evidence a virus causes MCC in animals.

Cats and dogs can get MCC as well as humans! But their MCCs are not caused by the Merkel polyomavirus.

Background: Clinical benefit from programmed cell death 1 receptor (PD-1) inhibitors relies on reinvigoration of endogenous antitumor immunity. Nonetheless, robust immunological markers, based on circulating immune cell subsets associated with therapeutic efficacy are yet to be validated. Methods: W...

Importance: Merkel cell carcinoma is an aggressive, cutaneous, neuroendocrine cancer that is increasing in incidence. Understanding why the incidence of Merkel cell carcinoma is increasing through underlying factors, such as age effects, calendar period of diagnosis effects, and birth cohort effects...

This team from Yale used data from 3500 patients in the National Cancer DataBase to reveal that MCC care at major academic centers with skin cancer expertise both followed cancer guidelines more closely and was associated with a 30% decrease in the chance of death as compared to MCC patients who wer...

Aim: To evaluate changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a Phase II trial (NCT02155647) of treatment-naive patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma treated with avelumab (15-month follow-up). Materials & methods: Mixed-effect Models for Repeated Measures were applied to HRQo...

Purpose: Conventionally fractionated, postoperative radiation therapy (cPORT; 50 Gy in 25 fractions) is considered for patients with Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) to improve locoregional control. However, cPORT is associated with acute toxicity, especially in the head and neck (H&N) region, and r...

BACKGROUND: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) guidelines derive from melanoma and do not recommend baseline cross-sectional imaging for most patients. However, MCC is more likely to have metastasized at diagnosis than melanoma. OBJECTIVE: To determine how often baseline imaging identifies clinically occul...