Merkel Cell Carcinoma – Current Controversies and Future Directions

Abstract

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare, aggressive neuroendocrine skin malignancy. Evidence for management comes from case series and single-arm trials. Optimal outcomes require assessment of the patient in a multidisciplinary team setting. Rapid diagnosis and staging are essential for locoregional control and may reduce metastasis. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) adds prognostic information. FDG-positron emission tomography has high sensitivity and specificity and affects management in a quarter of cases. Surgical excision and radiotherapy provide good locoregional control even with positive margins. Wide surgical margins are needed if adjuvant radiotherapy is not used. It is uncertain whether adjuvant radiotherapy or elective surgery for uninvolved nodes or for patients selected by positive SLNB improves survival. Total doses of 50 Gy provide high levels of control for microscopic disease but at least 60 Gy should be given for macroscopic disease. Chemotherapy can be given safely with radiotherapy, but the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy remains uncertain. Trials of adjuvant immune therapy are underway. Unresectable primaries might be controlled with radiotherapy alone or combination systemic therapy, radiotherapy and surgery. Metastatic disease often responds to chemotherapy, but the response duration can be short. Immunity is central to disease control. Immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment resulted in high response rates in chemotherapy-naive patients and lower rates in chemotherapy-refractory patients. Durable responses are observed.