Björn Andtback Hannah, Björnhagen-Säfwenberg Viveca, Shi Hao, Lui Weng-Onn, Masucci Giuseppe V, Villabona Lisa
Department Oncology-Pathology, Karolinska Institute and BioClinicum, Karolinska University Hospital, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, Karolinska University Hospital, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jan 12;13(2):265. doi: 10.3390/cancers13020265.
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin cancer where Merkel cell Polyomavirus (MCPyV) contributes to the pathogenesis. In an adjuvant setting, radiotherapy (RT) is believed to give a survival benefit. The prognostic impact of sex related to MCPyV-status and adjuvant RT were analyzed in patients referred to Karolinska University Hospital. Data were collected from 113 patients' hospital records and MCPyV analyses were made in 54 patients (48%). We found a significantly better overall survival (OS) for women compared to men and a significant difference in OS in patients receiving adjuvant RT. Furthermore, we found that men with virus negative MCC have an increased risk for earlier death (HR 3.6). This indicates that MCPyV positive and negative MCC act as two different diseases, and it might be due to different mechanism in the immune response between male and female patients. This could have significance in tailoring treatment and follow-up in MCC patients in the future.
默克尔细胞癌（MCC）是一种罕见且侵袭性强的皮肤癌，默克尔细胞多瘤病毒（MCPyV）在其发病机制中起作用。在辅助治疗中，放疗（RT）被认为能带来生存获益。对转诊至卡罗林斯卡大学医院的患者分析了与MCPyV状态及辅助放疗相关的性别对预后的影响。从113例患者的医院记录中收集数据，并对54例患者（48%）进行了MCPyV分析。我们发现女性的总生存期（OS）显著优于男性，接受辅助放疗的患者OS存在显著差异。此外，我们发现病毒阴性的男性MCC患者早期死亡风险增加（风险比3.6）。这表明MCPyV阳性和阴性的MCC表现为两种不同的疾病，这可能是由于男性和女性患者免疫反应的机制不同。这可能对未来MCC患者的治疗和随访方案调整具有重要意义。
