News & Publications

The vast majority of Merkel cell carcinomas are diagnosed at a time when the tumor involves the deeper layer of skin, the dermis. In less than 1% of cases, an early Merkel cell carcinoma tumor is found to only involve the upper layer of the skin, the epidermis. This is called “in situ“ Merkel ce...

Dear friends of Merkel cell carcinoma research,   Greetings! I hope that you are having a wonderful start to the holiday season. Your partnership is vital to accelerating discoveries that will continue to unlock better outcomes for patients and their families, today and for years to come. I...

The Merkel virus antibody test (AMERK) is being increasingly used around the US and the world. This team at University of Tennessee in Knoxville carried out a 7 year study on 51 patients and found that it was predictive of outcomes. They found that patients who produce these antibodies had a signifi...

This review led by Dr. Tomoko Akaike, covers some of the underlying biology of MCC, with a focus on MCC clinical management now and into the future.

There has been a long-standing controversy as to what type of cell, when infected with the Merkel cell polyomavirus, ultimately turns into what we know as Merkel cell carcinoma. Some studies indicate the cell of origin might be fibroblasts from the dermis, keratinocytes from the epidermis, or even B...

This recent study introduces a new method for single-cell cytometry studies, FAUST, which allows researchers to identify and measure the physical and functional characteristics of a population of immune cells. This method was applied to a prior Merkel cell carcinoma study that focused on tumor-speci...

Congratulations to several members of the Nghiem Lab Research Team whose recent proposal was selected to receive $20,000 in award funding through Seattle Translational Tumor Research (STTR), to support their innovative Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) research project.

Dr. Paul Ngheim, professor and head of the UW Medicine Division of Dermatology, recently gave the keynote lecture at the 17th annual Wallace H. Clark, Jr., MD Lectureship in Cutaneous Oncology and Melanoma Symposium, held virtually on Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Dr. Nghiem focused his lect...

A recent study titled, “Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Top 100 Cited Publications,” has named the University of Washington Division of Dermatology as the leading and most frequently cited institutions for Merkel Cell Carcinoma articles having published 36 percent of the to...

We have long suspected that sunlight-damaged skin cells can develop into either a squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or much less often a Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). This process does not involve the Merkel cell polyomavirus, and is relevant for about 20% of MCC cases in the US. We have long believed th...