Response rate and durability of chemotherapy for metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma among 62 patients.

9091 Background: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer with a high propensity to metastasize (u003e 30%). Distant metastatic MCC is often treated using chemotherapy but its efficacy is unclear because the existing literature: 1) intermingles adjuvant and therapeutic chemotherapy cases and, 2) often includes combined chemo-radiation. Methods: To assess the efficacy of chemotherapy on MCC we performed a retrospective analysis of 62 patients in our cohort with distant MCC metastases evaluable for response to chemotherapy alone.Tumor responses were characterized as complete remission (CR), partial remission (PR), stable disease (SD) or progressive disease (PD) per RECIST. Overall survival (OS), durability of response and progression-free survival (PFS) were also analyzed. Results: Median age of this cohort was 68 years (range: 47 – 96). Median OS from the start of chemotherapy was 9.5 months. Platinum plus etoposide was the most common first line regimen administered to 69% of the patients. Obj...