ArticleOncotarget2016
Mutational landscape of MCPyV-positive and MCPyV-negative Merkel cell carcinomas with implications for immunotherapy.
Article in Oncotarget, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 204 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
204 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 382 citations in OpenAlex.
- Endocrine and paracrine characteristics of neuroendocrine prostate cancer.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of merkel cell polyomavirus positivity on prognosis of merkel cell carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Merkel Cell Carcinoma, Version 1.2018, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology.Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN · 2018Guideline
- Systematic literature review of efficacy, safety and tolerability outcomes of chemotherapy regimens in patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma.Future oncology (London, England) · 2017Pooled it
- Anti-PD-1 therapy in unresectable desmoplastic melanoma: the phase 2 SWOG S1512 trial.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- Biomarker Analyses Investigating Disease Biology and Associations with Outcomes in the JAVELIN Merkel 200 Trial of Avelumab in Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2024Trial
- Three-year survival, correlates and salvage therapies in patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab for advanced Merkel cell carcinoma.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2021Trial
- Neoadjuvant Nivolumab for Patients With Resectable Merkel Cell Carcinoma in the CheckMate 358 Trial.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2020Trial
- Durable Tumor Regression and Overall Survival in Patients With Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma Receiving Pembrolizumab as First-Line Therapy.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2019Trial
- Cabozantinib in Patients with Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma.The oncologist · 2018Trial
- Avelumab in patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma: a multicentre, single-group, open-label, phase 2 trial.The Lancet. Oncology · 2016Trial
- PD-1 Blockade with Pembrolizumab in Advanced Merkel-Cell Carcinoma.The New England journal of medicine · 2016Trial
- Circulating Tumor DNA in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Precision Biomarker for Recurrence Detection and Therapeutic Guidance.Journal of personalized medicine · 2026Review
- Antiviral regulator TRIM25 as a prognostic marker of better survival in Merkel cell carcinoma: Association with MCPyV status.International journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Review
- Article
- Sun-Exposed vs. Non-Sun-Exposed Areas: Epidemiology and Pathogenesis of Non-Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Utility and Clinicopathologic Associations of Histone H3 Lysine 27 Trimethylation (H3K27me3) Immunohistochemistry for Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2026Article
- Genomic Signatures of Poor Prognosis in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Single-Institution Prospective Study.Molecular cancer research : MCR · 2025Article
- Article
144 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but highly aggressive cutaneous neuroendocrine carcinoma, associated with the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) in 80% of cases. To define the genetic basis of MCCs, we performed exome sequencing of 49 MCCs. We show that MCPyV-negative MCCs have a high mutation burden (median of 1121 somatic single nucleotide variants (SSNVs) per-exome with frequent mutations in RB1 and TP53 and additional damaging mutations in genes in the chromatin modification (ASXL1, MLL2, and MLL3), JNK (MAP3K1 and TRAF7), and DNA-damage pathways (ATM, MSH2, and BRCA1). In contrast, MCPyV-positive MCCs harbor few SSNVs (median of 12.5 SSNVs/tumor) with none in the genes listed above. In both subgroups, there are rare cancer-promoting mutations predicted to activate the PI3K pathway (HRAS, KRAS, PIK3CA, PTEN, and TSC1) and to inactivate the Notch pathway (Notch1 and Notch2). TP53 mutations appear to be clinically relevant in virus-negative MCCs as 37% of these tumors harbor potentially targetable gain-of-function mutations in TP53 at p.R248 and p.P278. Moreover, TP53 mutational status predicts death in early stage MCC (5-year survival in TP53 mutant vs wild-type stage I and II MCCs is 20% vs. 92%, respectively; P = 0.0036). Lastly, we identified the tumor neoantigens in MCPyV-negative and MCPyV-positive MCCs. We found that virus-negative MCCs harbor more tumor neoantigens than melanomas or non-small cell lung cancers (median of 173, 65, and 111 neoantigens/sample, respectively), two cancers for which immune checkpoint blockade can produce durable clinical responses. Collectively, these data support the use of immunotherapies for virus-negative MCCs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.