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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2021; 42(06): 599-602
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1740949
Case Report with Review of Literature

Two Clinical Cases of Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma Illustrating Avelumab Tolerability in Elderly Patients

Bridget Josephs
1   Medical Oncology Advanced Trainee at Launceston General Hospital, Tasmania, Australia
,
Sanjeev Sewak
2   Peninsula and South East Hematology and Oncology, Melbourne, Australia
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Abstract

We present two cases of primary cutaneous Merkel cell carcinoma in a 80-year and a 95-year old patient. Both patients had a wide local excision, but early recurrences occurred. Case 1 required palliative radiotherapy. He did not receive chemotherapy but case 2 did. They then proceeded to have immunotherapy with sustained responses lasting greater than 2 and 3 years. This report highlights an important new class of drug for the treatment of advanced Merkel cell carcinoma. Furthermore, our case report demonstrates that avelumab immunotherapy can be safely delivered to elderly patients, including 80- and 95-year-old patients. This report parallels the high and durable response rates to avelumab (including complete responses) that were shown in the JAVELIN phase II trials.

Keywords

avelumab - elderly patients - immunotherapy - Merkel cell carcinoma

Authors' Contribution

Both authors were involved in concept, design, definition of intellectual content, literature search, case report, manuscript preparation, editing, and review.


Patient Consent

Formal patient informed consent was not required at our institution as the cases were anonymous. Ethics Committee Waiver was obtained for publication.




Publication History

Article published online:
30 December 2021

© 2021. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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