title: Clinicopathologic features of primary Merkel cell carcinoma: a detailed descriptive analysis of a large contemporary cohort.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little uniformity exists in the clinical and histologic variables reported with primary Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To provide a rigorous descriptive analysis of a contemporary cohort and promote the prospective collection of detailed data on MCC for future outcome studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  A detailed descriptive analysis was performed for clinical and histologic features of 147 patients with 150 primary MCC tumors in a prospectively collected database from 2006 to 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The majority (73.5%) of patients were at American Joint Committee on Cancer clinical stage I or II at presentation, 20.4% at stage III, and 6.1% at stage IV. Detailed descriptive clinical and histologic findings are presented.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinical and histologic profiling of primary MCC in the literature is variable and limited. Systematic prospective collection of MCC data is needed for future outcome studies and the ability to compare and share data from multiple sources for this relatively rare tumor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. jennschw@med.umich.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Christopher K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Bichakjian
authors.forename: Lori
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lowe
authors.forename: Kent A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Griffith
authors.forename: Marcus L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Frohm
authors.forename: Douglas R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Fullen
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hayman
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Lao
authors.forename: Khooshbu S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: McLean
authors.forename: Carol R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Bradford
authors.forename: Timothy M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015266:Carcinoma, Merkel Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005121:Extremities / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009378:Neoplasms, Multiple Primary / Q000453:epidemiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*