Trabecular (Merkel cell) carcinoma of the skin. Treatment of primary, recurrent, and metastatic disease.

Four new patients with trabecular (Merkel cell) carcinoma of the skin are described, and an additional 76 patients from the literature are reviewed. The mean age of the combined group of patients was 68; 84% were 60 years or older. Primary tumors appeared most frequently on the head and neck (44%), leg (28%), arm (16%), or buttock (9%). No primary tumor appeared on the trunk. The rate of local recurrence was 36%, regional metastatic disease, 53%; distant metastases, 28%; and death due to metastatic tumor (minimally), 25%. It appears that trabecular carcinoma of the skin is more aggressive and lethal than previously thought. The authors recommend that patients with this tumor undergo wide resection of the primary site and, in healthy patients, prophylactic regional node dissection. Both radiation therapy and chemotherapy are effective in palliating unresectable disease.