News & Publications
The latest news and publications about Merkel cell carcinoma and merkelcell.org.
Background: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin cancer associated with a high risk of metastasis. In 2017, avelumab (anti-programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)) became the first approved treatment for patients with metastatic MCC (mMCC), based on the occurrence of durable responses in...
Read more →PURPOSE: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin cancer commonly driven by the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV). The programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) immunosuppressive pathway is often upregulated in MCC, and advanced metastatic MCC frequently responds to PD...
Read more →Background: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive, high-grade, cutaneous neuroendocrine tumour (NET). Agents blocking programmed death 1/programmed death ligand 1 have efficacy in metastatic MCC (mMCC), but half of patients do not derive durable benefit. Somatostatin analogues (SSAs) are comm...
Read more →Great strides have been made in cancer immunotherapy including the breakthrough successes of anti‐PD‐(L)1 checkpoint inhibitors. In Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a rare and aggressive skin cancer, PD‐(L)1 blockade is highly effective. Yet, ~50% of patients either do not respond to therapy or de...
Read more →Purpose: IL12 promotes adaptive type I immunity and has demonstrated antitumor efficacy, but systemic administration leads to severe adverse events (AE), including death. This pilot trial investigated safety, efficacy, and immunologic activity of intratumoral delivery of IL12 plasmid DNA (tavo) via ...
Read more →Approximately one-third of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) patients eventually develop distant metastatic disease. Little is known about whether the location of the primary lesion is predictive of initial distant metastatic site, or if survival likelihood differs depending on the metastatic site. Such d...
Read more →This study analyzed outcomes from the care of 8252 Merkel cell carcinoma patients at 1147 facilities in the US. It found that patients did better if cared for at higher volume / larger facilities. Such facilities tend to follow evidence-based guidelines, and are more likely to provide multi-discipli...
Read more →Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer that recurs in more than one-third of cases, with reported mortality rates of 33%to 46%.1 Given this high risk situation, MCC is often managed with therapies that are aggressive and potentially toxic: extensive surgery, radiation therapy (RT),...
Read more →BACKGROUND: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive type of cancer with poor outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To describe treatment patterns, overall survival, and healthcare costs associated with advanced MCC (aMCC) using data from Medicare enrollees who received an aMCC diagnosis in the USA State...
Read more →Published data for pediatric and young adult patients with Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) are scarce. Case reports from the United States and Europe suggest that MCC can occur in young persons and may be more aggressive in this setting. We sought to determine the frequency of MCC in pediatric and young...
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