ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Dermatology2021
Clinical benefit of baseline imaging in Merkel cell carcinoma: Analysis of 584 patients.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Merkel-cell carcinoma: ESMO-EURACAN Clinical Practice Guideline for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.ESMO open · 2024Guideline
- Outcomes of Patients Undergoing Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
- Clinical characteristics and immunotherapy in Chinese patients with Merkel cell carcinoma: a retrospective analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Polyomavirus Antibodies for Merkel Cell Carcinoma Recurrence Detection.JAMA dermatology · 2025Article
- Management and Outcomes of Merkel Cell Carcinoma in Canada Between 2000 and 2018 from the Pan-Canadian Merkel Cell Collaborative.Annals of surgical oncology · 2025Article
- Review
- Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Hematology/oncology clinics of North America · 2024Review
- Unmasking hidden Merkel cell carcinoma recurrences: Three illustrative cases of patients with rising viral oncoprotein antibody levels and challenge of requiring multi-modal imaging to detect clinical disease.Radiology case reports · 2024Article
- Merkel cell carcinoma: updates in tumor biology, emerging therapies, and preclinical models.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Review
- Review
- The Evolving Treatment Landscape of Merkel Cell Carcinoma.Current treatment options in oncology · 2023Review
- Best practices in surgical and nonsurgical management of head and neck Merkel cell carcinoma: An update.Molecular carcinogenesis · 2023Article
- Review
- Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) clinical practice guideline on immunotherapy for the treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancer.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2022Article
- Nationwide multidisciplinary consensus on the clinical management of Merkel cell carcinoma: a Delphi panel.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2022Article
- Merkel cell carcinoma in the hand. Report of two cases.Case reports in plastic surgery & hand surgery · 2022Article
- Scientific and clinical developments in Merkel cell carcinoma: A polyomavirus-driven, often-lethal skin cancer.Journal of dermatological science · 2022Review
- Merkel Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Current State of Treatment and Future Directions.Cancers · 2021Review
- How we treat Merkel cell carcinoma: within and beyond current guidelines.Future oncology (London, England) · 2021Article
- Merkel Cell Carcinoma: New Trends.Cancers · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMerkel cell carcinoma (MCC) guidelines derive from melanoma and do not recommend baseline cross-sectional imaging for most patients. However, MCC is more likely to have metastasized at diagnosis than melanoma.
objectiveTo determine how often baseline imaging identifies clinically occult MCC in patients with newly diagnosed disease with and without palpable nodal involvement.
methodsAnalysis of 584 patients with MCC with a cutaneous primary tumor, baseline imaging, no evident distant metastases, and sufficient staging data.
resultsAmong 492 patients with clinically uninvolved regional nodes, 13.2% had disease upstaged by imaging (8.9% in regional nodes, 4.3% in distant sites). Among 92 patients with clinically involved regional nodes, 10.8% had disease upstaged to distant metastatic disease. Large (>4 cm) and small (<1 cm) primary tumors were both frequently upstaged (29.4% and 7.8%, respectively). Patients who underwent positron emission tomography-computed tomography more often had disease upstaged (16.8% of 352), than those with computed tomography alone (6.9% of 231; P = .0006). LIMITATIONS: This was a retrospective study.
conclusionsIn patients with clinically node-negative disease, baseline imaging showed occult metastatic MCC at a higher rate than reported for melanoma (13.2% vs <1%). Although imaging is already recommended for patients with clinically node-positive MCC, these data suggest that baseline imaging is also indicated for patients with clinically node-negative MCC because upstaging is frequent and markedly alters management and prognosis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.