, including those without palpable lymph nodes, according to results of an analysis of a large MCC registry presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Investigative Dermatology.
The results were a “surprise,” according to Neha Singh, a researcher in the division of dermatology at the University of Washington, Seattle. She contended that many treatment guidelines for MCC, including imaging at the time of diagnosis, are borrowed from those developed for melanoma but should not be.
“MCC is much more frequently metastatic to regional and distant sites than melanoma, so current melanoma guidelines may not be appropriate for use with MCC,” she said. According to the data she cited, 41% of MCC patients, versus 14% of melanoma patients, already have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis.
