News & Publications
The latest news and publications about Merkel cell carcinoma and merkelcell.org.
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is not a common skin cancer, but it is a very dangerous one. The number of cases has increased dramatically in the past decade. Luckily, knowledge and treatment options have surged, too. Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD, director of the Skin Oncology Clinical Program at the Seattle C...
Read more →Parents are always looking out for their kids. It’s rare when it happens the other way around. But Susan Manber’s 13-year-old daughter saved her life. It happened one afternoon, not long after Hurricane Sandy had wreaked havoc on the New York City area. “We’d been without power for two weeks...
Read more →On December 19, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA, Merck & Co. Inc.) for adult and pediatric patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Approval was based on Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network prot...
Read more →Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that the National Health Service cover Bavencio (avelumab) as a treatment for adults with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC), a rare form of skin cancer. The institute’s Final Appraisal Determination (FAD) re...
Read more →MISSISSAUGA, ON, Feb. 22, 2018 /CNW/ - EMD Serono, Canada, the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in the U.S. and Canada, and Pfizer Canada Inc. announced that Health Canada has approved BAVENCIO™ (avelumab for injection) for the treatment of metastatic Merkel cell carcin...
Read more →https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/06/clinical-trial-saved-my-life-could-save-yours-stan-collender-column/513055001/
Read more →It was a few days after her son’s 6th birthday party four years ago when Carrie Best rolled over in bed and felt a pinch in her armpit. When she reached over and touched it, she jolted awake. Soon she'd learn that she had cancer. “I had a lump the size of a grape under my arm,” says Best, a 50...
Read more →Imagine being told you had a rare and exceedingly deadly cancer ― and, if that wasn’t bad enough, that there was not a single drug approved to treat your disease. Tom Judd doesn’t have to imagine. He’s lived through it. After being diagnosed in 2013 with the skin cancer Merkel cell carcinoma...
Read more →Researchers at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington say a new study suggests ways to improve immune therapy for certain cancers including a virus-associated form of Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare, aggressive skin cancer. Merkel cell carcinoma, or MCC, is 3...
Read more →Scientists have found a way to detect earlier if Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is recurring in patients. They have published a paper in the journal Cancer demonstrating how an immune system marker may be able to outperform and supplement imaging studies for recurrence of MCC. The majority of MCC cas...
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