Primary neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin or Merkel cell carcinoma is an aggressive primary neoplasm. It is commonly seen in the elderly, on the head, neck and extremities, where it can mimic a benign or less malignant skin tumour. Pathological examination shows a generally dense growth of small dark cells, with immunohistochemical evidence of neuroendocrine differentiation. The microscopic ...

Although Merkel cell carcinoma of the eye lid is reported frequently in the literature, only limited information exists about the distribution of Merkel cells in this tissue. Therefore, serial sections of 18 human cadaver eye lids (donors ages ranging between 63 and 97 years) were stained for cytokeratin 20 in various planes. The overall appearance of Merkel cells in these samples was low and m...

Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) is often referred to as Merkel cell carcinoma of the skin, trabecular cell carcinoma, cutaneous apudoma, and primary small-cell carcinoma of the skin. NEC is derived from Merkel cells found in the hair follicles of mammals that form complexes with terminal axons to act as mechanoreceptors to pressure. Merkel cells are also found in the dermis, epidermis, and oral ...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but very aggressive skin cancer that derives from neuroendocrine cells of the skin. Merkel cell carcinoma morbidity has been continuously increasing for the last few years. Increasing reported incidence of MCC is probably connected with increasing occurrence of this kind of malignancy or with development of histological and immunohistochemical methods of sa...

Introduction: Although the association between cancer and sarcoidosis or sarcoid reaction is known, sarcoid reaction associated with Merkel cell carcinoma is rare. Case presentation: We report the case of a 57-year-old Japanese woman with Merkel cell carcinoma in the inguinal area associated with sarcoid reaction. Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography demonstrated elevated fluorodeoxy...

Merkel cell carcinoma is a malignant skin tumor with a poor prognosis that primarily affects photoexposed areas of elderly patients. Tumor size is a very strong prognostic factor, with much better outcomes associated with small lesions, measuring less than 1cm. However, such lesions are rarely seen in the clinic in view of the rapid growth of this tumor. We report 2 cases of incipient Merkel ce...

The RNA viruses hepatitis C virus and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (or human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1), and the DNA viruses hepatitis B virus, high-risk human papillomaviruses, human herpes virus-8 (Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus) and Epstein Barr virus are acknowledged as carcinogenic to humans. Human polyomaviruses have oncogenic potentials in cell cultures and animal...