What is it about?
Merkel cell carcinoma is very aggressive skin cancer, We studied 34 Merkel cell carcinoma patients surgery and studied the tumor size with correlation to outcome. We found that larger margins around the tumor resulted in better outcome. We also found that patients with tumors larger than 2 cm in diameter developed metastasis more often.
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Why is it important?
We showed that larger surgery with larger margins around the tumor affected positively on survival, patients survived longer. This study provided guidelines for surgeons to deal with this cancer. We also showed that it is important to operate these patients early, before the tumor size is over 2 cm in diameter.
Perspectives
This is my first published article. In 2003 the research on Merkel cell carcinoma vert rare. Most of the published articles were only case reports. Although 34 patients seems small cohort, at the time of the publication this was one of the biggest Merkel cell carcinoma patient series. In this article we started systeically analyse this rare skin cancer.
Dr Virve Koljonen
Helsingin Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Merkel cell carcinoma: a clinicopathological study of 34 patients, European Journal of Surgical Oncology, September 2003, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/s0748-7983(03)00110-0.
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