Trial reportJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2019
Durable Tumor Regression and Overall Survival in Patients With Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma Receiving Pembrolizumab as First-Line Therapy.
Trial report in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 218 papers, 8 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
218 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 386 citations in OpenAlex.
- First-line ipilimumab plus nivolumab in advanced merkel cell carcinoma: a meta-analysis of prospective trials and real-world validation cohort.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.BMC cancer · 2024Pooled it
- Merkel-cell carcinoma: ESMO-EURACAN Clinical Practice Guideline for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.ESMO open · 2024Guideline
- Cabozantinib for different endocrine tumours: killing two birds with one stone. A systematic review of the literature.Endocrine · 2024Pooled it
- Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Associated Hepatotoxicity in Primary Liver Cancer Versus Other Cancers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Pooled it
- Efficacy of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Rare Tumours: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Pooled it
- Programmed Death 1 and Programmed Death Ligand 1 Inhibitors in Advanced and Recurrent Urothelial Carcinoma: Meta-analysis of Single-Agent Studies.Clinical genitourinary cancer · 2020Pooled it
- Immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated pituitary-adrenal dysfunction: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Cancer medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Lanreotide, a Somatostatin Analogue, in Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Prospective Single-Arm Phase II Study.Cancer medicine · 2026Trial
- Neoadjuvant lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab in Merkel cell carcinoma: an investigator-initiated, open-label phase II trial.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Trial
- Phase II study of retifanlimab in patients with recurrent locally advanced or metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (POD1UM-201).Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2025Trial
- Pembrolizumab for the First-Line Treatment of Recurrent Locally Advanced or Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma: Results from the Single-Arm, Open-Label, Phase III KEYNOTE-913 Study.American journal of clinical dermatology · 2024Trial
- 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
- First-line avelumab in a cohort of 116 patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (JAVELIN Merkel 200): primary and biomarker analyses of a phase II study.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2021Trial
- Three-year survival, correlates and salvage therapies in patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab for advanced Merkel cell carcinoma.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2021Trial
- The Role of Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 in the Treatment of Skin Cancer.BioDrugs : clinical immunotherapeutics, biopharmaceuticals and gene therapy · 2020Trial
- 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
- Avelumab in patients with previously treated metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma: long-term data and biomarker analyses from the single-arm phase 2 JAVELIN Merkel 200 trial.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2020Trial
- Decrease in tumor content assessed in biopsies is associated with improved treatment outcome response to pembrolizumab in patients with rare tumors.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2020Trial
- Perspectives on 10 years of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Podcast.Targeted oncology · 2026Article
158 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
31 authors at 17 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMerkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer often caused by the Merkel cell polyomavirus. Clinical trials of programmed cell death-1 pathway inhibitors for advanced MCC (aMCC) demonstrate increased progression-free survival (PFS) compared with historical chemotherapy data. However, response durability and overall survival (OS) data are limited. PATIENTS AND
methodsIn this multicenter phase II trial (Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network-09/Keynote-017), 50 adults naïve to systemic therapy for aMCC received pembrolizumab (2 mg/kg every 3 weeks) for up to 2 years. Radiographic responses were assessed centrally per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) v1.1.
resultsAmong 50 patients, the median age was 70.5 years, and 64% had Merkel cell polyomavirus-positive tumors. The objective response rate (ORR) to pembrolizumab was 56% (complete response [24%] plus partial response [32%]; 95% CI, 41.3% to 70.0%), with ORRs of 59% in virus-positive and 53% in virus-negative tumors. Median follow-up time was 14.9 months (range, 0.4 to 36.4+ months). Among 28 responders, median response duration was not reached (range, 5.9 to 34.5+ months). The 24-month PFS rate was 48.3%, and median PFS time was 16.8 months (95% CI, 4.6 months to not estimable). The 24-month OS rate was 68.7%, and median OS time was not reached. Although tumor viral status did not correlate with ORR, PFS, or OS, there was a trend toward improved PFS and OS in patients with programmed death ligand-1-positive tumors. Grade 3 or greater treatment-related adverse events occurred in 14 (28%) of 50 patients and led to treatment discontinuation in seven (14%) of 50 patients, including one treatment-related death.
conclusionHere, we present the longest observation to date of patients with aMCC receiving first-line anti-programmed cell death-1 therapy. Pembrolizumab demonstrated durable tumor control, a generally manageable safety profile, and favorable OS compared with historical data from patients treated with first-line chemotherapy.
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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.