NCCN Guidelines® Insights: Merkel Cell Carcinoma, Version 1.2024
Chrysalyne D. Schmults, Rachel Blitzblau, Sumaira Z. Aasi, Murad Alam, Arya Amini, Kristin Bibee, Diana Bolotin, Jeremy S. Bordeaux, Pei-Ling Chen, Carlo M. Contreras, Dominick J. DiMaio, Jessica M. Donigan, Jeffrey M. Farma, Karthik Ghosh, Kelly L. Harms, Alan L. Ho, John N. Lukens, Susan Manber, Lawrence A. Mark, Theresa Medina, Kishwer S. Nehal, Paul Nghiem, Kelly Olino, Soohyung Park, Tejesh Patel, Igor Puzanov, Jason T. Rich, Aleksander Sekulic, Ashok R. Shaha, Divya Srivastava, Valencia D. Thomas, Courtney M. Tomblinson, Puja Venkat, Yaohui Xu, Siegrid S. Yu, Mehran Yusuf, Beth McCullough, Sara Espinosa
Abstract
The NCCN Guidelines for Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) provide recommendations for diagnostic workup, clinical stage, and treatment options for patients. The panel meets annually to discuss updates to the guidelines based on comments from expert review from panel members, institutional review, as well as submissions from within NCCN and external organizations. These NCCN Guidelines Insights focus on the introduction of a new page for locally advanced disease in the setting of clinical node negative status, entitled "Clinical N0 Disease, Locally Advanced MCC." This new algorithm page addresses locally advanced disease, and the panel clarifies the meaning behind the term "nonsurgical" by further defining locally advanced disease. In addition, the guideline includes the management of in-transit disease and updates to the systemic therapy options.