News & Publications

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is commonly used to treat advanced Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). However, its efficacy in distant metastatic MCC patients is unclear, in part because most prior reports aggregated these patients with those receiving adjuvant chemotherapy and combined chemoradiation for whom pro...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) has a high risk of recurrence after initial surgical therapy. Adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) and chemotherapy may be used to reduce the risk of locoregional and systemic recurrence, respectively, but there are conflicting data regarding their impact on survival. We perfo...

In a phase II single-arm study, the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab effectively shrank tumors and prolonged survival in more than half of patients with Merkel cell carcinoma. Responses were significantly more durable that those typically seen with chemotherapy.

Merkel-cell carcinoma is an aggressive skin cancer that is linked to exposure to ultraviolet light and the Merkel-cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Advanced Merkel-cell carcinoma often responds to chemotherapy, but responses are transient. Blocking the programmed death 1 (PD-1) immune inhibitory pathway is...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but highly aggressive cutaneous neuroendocrine carcinoma, associated with the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) in 80% of cases. To define the genetic basis of MCCs, we performed exome sequencing of 49 MCCs. We show that MCPyV-negative MCCs have a high mutation b...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive, polyomavirus-associated cancer with limited therapeutic options for metastatic disease. Cytotoxic chemotherapy is associated with high response rates, but responses are seldom durable and toxicity is considerable. Here, we report our experience with pall...

Objectives: To review the role of radiotherapy as treatment (RTx) alone in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Methods: Data on 41 patients with MCC treated with RTx alone between 1993 and 2013 at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, were reviewed and analysed. Results: The patients’ median age w...

1. What is pazopanib? How does it work? Pazopanib is a cancer medication in a family of drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors. A tyrosine kinase is a protein on the surface of a cell that transmits signals to the cell’s control center. Specifically, pazopanib targets vascular endothelial growth ...

The effects of primary tumor size on nodal involvement and of number of involved nodes on survival have not, to our knowledge, been examined in a national database of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Objective: We sought to analyze a retrospective cohort of patients with MCC from the largest US national...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a highly aggressive skin tumour with increasing incidence, is associated with the newly discovered Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). Studies on MCC and MCPyV as well as other risk factors have significantly increased our knowledge of MCC pathogenesis, but the cells of or...