aldre

[ALDRE]

TO MD's and forum members:

My wife was diagnosed with MCC (Merkel Cell Carcinoma) rare form of skin cancer.  What does anyone know about it?

AD

[rarebird]

I WAS DX IN 2005 WITH MCC. IT  APPEARED BELOW MY ANKLE. I'M A FEMALE OF AFRICAN DECENT AND WAS 50 YRS AT THE TIME. MANY OCCURRENCES HAD ALL THE TREATMENTS INCLUDING A LIMB INFUSION AT SLOAN KETTERING. BUT LIKE IN TRUE FASHION IT CAME BACK.
SO FAR ISOLATED TO MY RIGHT LEG, WHICH AS THE NICK NAME 'SPOT' .
HOW IS YOUR WIFE?
IS THERE SUCH A THING AND BUILDING AN IMMUNITY TO THIS TYPE CANCER ?

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Merkel Cell Carcinoma is a very rare form of skin cancer which occurs most commonly in the skin covering the head, face and neck. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light has been indirectly implicated in its development. It's an aggressive tumor, and has a high probability of recurrence (20-75% depending on stage).  It also has a propensity for metastasizing to lymph nodes (31-80%) and other organs such as the lung, liver, brain, gastrointestinal tract and bladder(26-75%).  The median survival for stage 1 patients is 8 years (97 months), but goes down to 15 months for stage 2 and 6 months for metastatic disease (stage 4).  Treatment usually consists of a combination of wide surgical excision and lymph node dissection, combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy (for metastatic disease).