Is the Addition of Chemotherapy to Adjuvant Radiation in Merkel Cell Cancer Beneficial? Real-World Data with Long-Term Follow-Up

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive malignancy of the skin whose primary treatment modalities for non-metastatic disease are surgery and radiation. In cases of resectable MCC, the addition of concurrent chemotherapy to adjuvant radiation therapy is still debatable. According to this real-world study, adding chemotherapy to adjuvant radiation does not significantly improve overall or disease-free survival in these patients. However, even though their disease was significantly more advanced, the chemoradiation-treated group had similar survival outcomes. This could imply that some high-risk subgroups may benefit from this more aggressive strategy.