Fidanzi Cristian, Troaca Silviu Flavius, Fanelli Giuseppe Nicolò, Romanelli Marco, Dini Valentina, Viacava Paolo, Marconcini Riccardo, Morganti Riccardo, D'Erme Angelo Massimiliano, Bagnoni Giovanni, Janowska Agata
Unit of Dermatology.
Unit of Pathology, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa.
Eur J Cancer Prev. 2023 May 1;32(3):298-300. doi: 10.1097/CEJ.0000000000000774. Epub 2023 Jan 31.
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin cancer that still has a poor prognosis. MCC incidence has increased in recent years worldwide. The aim of our study was to perform an epidemiological retrospective study and to evaluate the impact of MCC clinical and pathological features on overall survival (OS) in a specific geographical area. We retrospectively collected 94 pathology reports from 2006 to 2021 that were present in the pathology archives of the University Hospital of Pisa and of the Hospital of Livorno. Laterality was different according to the site, and almost half of the lesions were T1 and nearly half of the patients had a clinical stage III. We reported a dramatic increase in MCC diagnoses in the last 5 years compared with the previous years, with a crude incidence rate of 1,15/100000 inhabitants, almost doubling the last reported data in Italy. Surgical margins status and ulceration were not related to OS. We have noticed some patients with a rapidly progressing disease and others showing a slow disease progression which should prompt the investigation of specific biomarkers or other features that could elucidate this striking difference in progression-free survival and could potentially identify different subtypes of MCC. Considering the generally low incidence of MCC worldwide, larger cohorts would be necessary to validate our data and to obtain a better prognostic stratification.
默克尔细胞癌（MCC）是一种罕见的侵袭性皮肤癌，预后仍然很差。近年来，全球范围内MCC的发病率有所上升。我们研究的目的是进行一项流行病学回顾性研究，并评估在特定地理区域内MCC的临床和病理特征对总生存期（OS）的影响。我们回顾性收集了2006年至2021年期间比萨大学医院和里窝那医院病理档案中的94份病理报告。病变的部位不同，左右侧分布也不同，几乎一半的病变为T1期，近一半的患者临床分期为III期。我们报告称，与前几年相比，过去5年中MCC的诊断数量急剧增加，粗发病率为1.15/10万居民，几乎是意大利上次报告数据的两倍。手术切缘状态和溃疡与总生存期无关。我们注意到一些患者疾病进展迅速，而另一些患者疾病进展缓慢，这应促使我们研究特定的生物标志物或其他特征，以阐明无进展生存期的显著差异，并有可能识别出MCC的不同亚型。考虑到全球范围内MCC的发病率普遍较低，需要更大的队列来验证我们的数据并获得更好的预后分层。
