News & Publications

The UW Division of Dermatology hosted the 2nd International Symposium on Merkel Cell Carcinoma in Seattle, Wash, from April 25-26, 2022. The two-day hybrid (in-person and virtual) event held at the Graduate Hotel brought together over 140 thought leaders, active investigators, faculty and trainee...

The annual update of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for MCC has just been posted, with inclusion of ‘Evidence blocks’ that indicate effectiveness, cost, and side effects of various treatments.

The 16th Annual MCC Multi-center Interest Group (MMIG) Meeting took place on March 25, 2022 at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. Here we summarize talks given by Lisa Zaba, MD, PhD, Lindsay Gunnell, MD, Sophia Shalhout, PhD, Mackenzie Martin, BA, Anna Szumera-Cieckiew...

Congratulations to several members of the Nghiem Lab Research Team whose recent proposal was selected to receive over $1.2 million in award funding through The Mark Foundation to support their innovative Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) research. The research team includes Peter Goff, MD, PhD, Senior...

Congratulations to UW Dermatology’s Nghiem Lab Research Team, and partners from around the world, who have recently been awarded a $4 million grant from Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) to develop and clinically test the ImmPACT cell product in Merkel cell carcinoma. The project will explore the po...

This is a study of over 444,000 persons who receive immune suppression medications to prevent the rejection of a transplanted kidney, heart, or other organ. The authors found an inceased risk of multiple cancers that are caused by sunlight and or viruses. The chance of developing Merkel cell carcino...

MCC made it into the NY Times in the form of this fascinating medical mystery story. A ‘paraneoplastic syndrome’ is when a tumor causes a process to happen in the body indirectly, such as via an immune response to the tumor that attacks another part of the body (as happened here) or because the ...

Patients treated for Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) face a five-year recurrence rate of 40%—markedly higher than the recurrence rates for melanoma and other skin cancers, according to research recently published in JAMA Dermatology. Additionally, in the study cohort of more than 600 patients, 95% of ...

One of the issues most often raised in the field of Merkel cell carcinoma is 'why is there no mouse model for this polymavirus-driven cancer?' The study by Verhaegen and colleagues answers that question, after well over a decade of effort by over a dozen labs attempting to do this. Simply put, it wa...

The first-ever therapeutic vaccine trial for Merkel cell carcinoma is set to start in April 2022, based in Seattle. This will be a small trial in only eight patients to initially check safety and whether the immune response targeting the Merkel cell polyomavirus is indeed increased in these patients...