New standard of care for Merkel cell carcinoma

Axel Hauschild, MD, PhD of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany, discusses the exciting new data on Merkel cell carcinoma presented at the 2016 World Congress on Cancers of the Skin (WCCS) and the Congress of the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO) in Vienna, Austria. Prof. Hauschild speaks about interesting data recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet Oncology on two drugs, a PDL-1 antibody called avelumab and a PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab, which have shown to be effective in the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma. Prof. Hauschild believes that a new standard of care can be defined for Merkel cell carcinoma and chemotherapy will take a backseat in the near future. Immunotherapy with checkpoint blockade is replacing current chemotherapy because it has shown to have more and longer responses which means better overall survival (OS).