Trial reportStrahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al]2015
Regional nodal relapse in surgically staged Merkel cell carcinoma.
Trial report in Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al], 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness and Safety of Treatments for Early-Stage Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized and Non-Randomized Studies.Cancer medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Merkel Cell Carcinoma, Version 1.2018, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology.Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN · 2018Guideline
- The role of radiotherapy in the updated German S2k guideline for management of Merkel cell carcinoma.Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2023Article
- Article
- Review
- Unexpected maspin immunoreactivity in Merkel cell carcinoma.Diagnostic pathology · 2015Article
- Should Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Status Guide Adjuvant Radiation Therapy in Patients With Merkel Cell Carcinoma?Advances in radiation oncologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe nodal relapse pattern of surgically staged Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) with/without elective nodal radiotherapy (RT) was studied in a single institution.
methodA total of 51 patients with MCC, 33% UICC stage I, 14% II, 53% III (4 lymph node metastases of unknown primary) were eligible. All patients had surgical staging: 23 patients sentinel node biopsy (SNB), 22 patients SNB followed by lymphadenectomy (LAD) and 6 patients LAD. In all, 94% of the primary tumors (PT) were completely resected; 57% of patients received RT, 51% of known PT sites, 33% (8/24 patients) regional RT to snN0 nodes and 68% (17/27 patients) to pN+ nodes, mean reference dose 51.5 and 50 Gy, respectively. Mean follow-up was 6 years (range 2-14 years).
resultsA total of 22% (11/51) patients developed regional relapses (RR); the 5-year RR rate was 27%. In snN0 sites (stage I/II), relapse occurred in 5 of 14 nonirradiated vs. none of 8 irradiated sites (p = 0.054), resulting in a 5-year RR rate of 33% versus 0% (p = 0.16). The crude RR rate was lower in stage I (12%, 2/17 patients) than for stage II (43%, 3/7 patients). In stage III (pN+), RR appeared to be less frequent in irradiated sites (18%, 3/14 patients) compared with nonirradiated sites (33%, 3/10 patients, p = 0.45) with 5-year RR rates of 23% vs. 34%, respectively. DISCUSSION: Our data suggest that adjuvant nodal RT plays a major role even if the sentinel nodes were negative.
conclusionAdjuvant RT of the lymph nodes in patients with stage IIa tumors and RT after LAD in stage III tumors is proposed and should be evaluated prospectively.
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