Postoperative radiotherapy in stage I-III Merkel cell carcinoma.

Background: Postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) is currently recommended for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma. Nevertheless, deviations occur frequently due to the generally elderly and frail patient population. We aimed to evaluate the influence of PORT on survival in stage I-III MCC patients treated in the Netherlands.

Merkel cell carcinoma: Clinical outcome and prognostic factors in 351 patients.

Background: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin.

Aim: To describe clinical outcome and prognostic factors of MCC patients in two expert-centers.

Method: Patients with histologically confirmed MCC in 1990-2014 were included.

Pigmentation in the sentinel node correlates with increased sentinel node tumor burden in melanoma patients.

The prognosis of sentinel node (SN)-positive melanoma patients is predicted by a number of characteristics such as size and site of the metastases in the SN. The pathway and prognosis of strong pigmentation of melanoma metastases in the SN is unclear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of pigmentation and growth pattern of metastases in the SN with respect to survival.