720 Early-stage drug discovery reveals new targets for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancer that lacks durable responses to conventional chemotherapy. Some patients with MCC respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), but many show disease progression despite immunotherapy. Patients with immunosuppression or autoimmunity may be precluded from using ICI at all. There are two categories of MCC: virus-positive MCC (VP-MCC) is characterized by integration of the Merkel cell polyomavirus into the host genome and represents the majority of cases, whereas virus-negative MCC (VN-MCC) is associated with mutations induced by ultraviolet light.
Source: Journal of Investigative Dermatology - Category: Dermatology Authors: Tags: Pharmacology and Drug Development Source Type: research