Merkel cell carcinoma in The New York Times
March 2, 2022
MCC made it into the NY Times in the form of this fascinating medical mystery story. A ‘paraneoplastic syndrome’ is when a tumor causes a process to happen in the body indirectly, such as via an immune response to the tumor that attacks another part of the body (as happened here) or because the tumor releases a hormone that could affect a body system such as salt regulation. We previously estimated that paraneoplastic syndromes happen in around 5% of MCC cases, but even less commonly cause major problems such as in this man’s story.