Outcome of early stage Merkel carcinoma treated by exclusive radiation: a study of 53 patients.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Early stage Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive primary skin cancer. The standard of care for MCC is broad excision and adjuvant external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). However, for some patients, anesthesia is contraindicated, while others run the risk of serious aesthetic sequelae. In such cases, exclusive radiotherapy is an interesting alternative to surgery. Though limited data is available, this study evaluates exclusive radiotherapy for MCC, using data from the largest retrospective study to date.

Methods

All patients who were followed in our center between 1989 and 2019 for histologically proven early stage MCC were included in the study. They were treated either by surgery with a 2-cm clear margin followed by adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) or by

SUBMITTER: Dubois M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8120723 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature