Klin Onkol 2007; 20(5): 354-356.
The case report presents a 46-year old patient with Merkel cell carcinoma. Initial treatment of localized disease consisted of sur¬gery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Shortly after the adjuvant chemotherapy completion she relapsed several times locoregionaly and ultimately in a distant location. The distant relapse was treated surgically as the disease was considered to be chemo-refractory. Since the last treatment, the patient has been disease-free for 16+ months. The case shows the importance of surgical treatment of chemorefractory disease. Because distant relapse was diagnosed by radiographic studies at the time when no other symptoms were presented, radiographic follow-up, at least in some cases, plays a very important role in addition to follow-up with physical examination.
