News & Publications

This publication adds to an already large number of studies that indicate that radiation can be considered a very effective primary therapy for MCC, particularly if surgery is not feasible. The Australians often treat MCC with radiation rather than surgery, and outcomes are very good. This concept j...

P01 members Paul Nghiem, Shailender Bhatia, Candice Church, Tomoko Akaike, and Michi Shinohara were co-authors on this exciting study that looked at first-line pembrolizumab treatment responses in patients with advanced MCC with a 3 year follow up. Authors found there was a 58% overall response rate...

Although carried out in mice, this study may have interesting implications for our patients. If radiation and immune therapy (such as Keytruda/pembrolizumab or Bavencio/avelumab) are to be given around the same time as radiation, this study suggests that radiation should be given before immune ther...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a skin cancer with a high risk of recurrence and distant spread. Optimal care of this cancer is important. However, management is challenging because it is rare and its treatment is continuously evolving across multiple specialties. While treatment guidelines offer a b...

We will hold the 2021 Multicenter Merkel Interest Group (MMIG) meeting on Friday, June 4th, 11 am-1 pm EDT / 8 am-10 am PDT via Zoom. Please email mccteam@uw.edu for an invitation with the zoom details. If you have an interesting topic to present, please let us know as we have a few avai...

The NCCN Guidelines® are a statement of evidence and consensus of the authors regarding their views of currently accepted approaches to treatment. Any clinician seeking to apply or consult the NCCN Guidelines is expected to use independent medical judgment in the context of individual clinical circ...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer, which is about twice as likely to metastasize as compared with melanoma.1 There are 2 distinct biological pathways for developing MCC: Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV)-induced and ultraviolet light-induced.2 In individuals immunosuppressed by...

Background: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) management typically includes surgery with or without adjuvant radiation therapy (aRT). Major challenges include determining surgical margin size and whether aRT is indicated. Objective: To assess the association of aRT, surgical margin size, and MCC local rec...

For patients who receive immune therapy for advanced melanoma, one year of therapy seems to be enough in most cases to provide ongoing disease control. We are in the process of studying our MCC patients to gather similar information. Early data seem to indicate that MCC patients tend to benefit from...