Diagnosing Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma Using Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT)

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare and lethal skin cancer that mostly occurs in aged persons who are over 60 years old as a dome-shaped purple nodule on the sun-exposed areas of the head, neck and extremities. The mortality rate is high because this tumor has a propensity for local recurrence, regional lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis. Therefore, rapid and precise diagnosis and staging are critical to improve the prognosis. We reported here on a 68-year old man with Merkel cell carcinoma on his right cheek and he had regional cervical lymph node metastasis, as was detected by PET-CT scanning. (Korean J Dermatol 2010;48(1):51∼55)Key Words: Merkel cell carcinoma, Metastasis, Positron Emission Tomography-computed tomography서 론