Systematic literature review of current treatments for stage I–III Merkel cell carcinoma

Aim: There is a need to evaluate current treatments for stages I–III of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). Materials & methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to understand how patients with stage I–III MCC are treated and assess efficacy, safety, health-related quality of life and economic impact of current therapies. Embase was searched using the following inclusion criteria: publications from 2014 to 2019, in English, with adult patients ( ≥ 18 years) with early-stage MCC (i.e., stages I–III) and any interventions/comparators. Publications were excluded if they included only patients with stage IV MCC, had no distinction between early and advanced or metastatic MCC or had no extractable data. Results: A total of 18 retrospective studies were included. Few studies had evidence that surgery plus adju…