News & Publications

This case report showed that a personalized and tumor-informed (‘bespoke’) test for cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) could predict MCC treatment response in an MCC patient treated with Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) and hypofractionated radiation (HRT).

This study presents updated findings from the JAVELIN Merkel 200 trial after more than 5 years of follow-up. It clearly shows that patients with metastatic MCC (mMCC) who previously experienced disease progression following chemotherapy had meaningful long-term overall survival, unlike for chemother...

Dr. Mac Cheever was a true pioneer in immune therapy for cancer. His efforts have helped many patients with cancer, but particularly those with Merkel cell carcinoma, helping to lead to the approval of anti-PD1 for MCC. This tribute to his life details why he believed that immune therapy for cancer ...

The 2nd International Symposium on Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) will take place Monday, April 25, 2022, 7:00 AM - Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 4:00 PM at the University of Washington in Seattle. The symposium is designed to explore emerging data that may allow improvements in understand the basic biology...

These authors from Turkey have carefully described the outcomes of 89 MCC patients seen across 20 centers in Turkey between 1999 and 2018. They note that MCC recurred in 28% of patients who presented with local and or nodal disease, and that while rare, the incidence is increasing in Turkey.

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...