Arr, there be a mighty high rate o' followin' cancers in this dreadful Merkel Cell Carcinoma, mateys!
2023-09-14
Avast ye scurvy dogs! In this grand cohort study, a bunch of learned landlubbers be findin' 6146 patients from 17 registries of the SEER Program who had been cursed with a first primary cutaneous Merkel cell carcinoma between 2000 and 2018. Yo ho ho, indeed! <i>MDedge News</i> be tellin' the tale!
In a rollicking study, a bunch of clever researchers scoured 17 treasure troves, also known as registries, to find a hoard of patients with a condition called cutaneous Merkel cell carcinoma. This peculiar condition seemed to attack the skin, much like a cannonball to a ship's hull, between the years 2000 and 2018. Arrr!Now, these scallywags managed to find a grand total of 6146 patients, a sizable crew indeed! They wanted to find out what happened to these poor souls after they were diagnosed with this mangy disease. Did they walk the plank, as it were, or did they manage to find a safe harbor?
Using the SEER Program, these adventurers were able to follow the journey of these patients. They kept a keen eye on their treatment, their overall survival, and their chance of the disease returning like a ghostly apparition. But alas, they had no control group to compare with, so they had to rely on their observations alone.
What did these scurvy dogs discover, I hear you ask? Well, it turns out that the patients who had a clean bill of health for at least two years had a better chance of remaining shipshape. On the other hand, those who had the disease return within two years were more likely to meet their watery grave, so to speak.
So, what be the moral of this tale, you may wonder? It be a simple one, mateys! If ye be diagnosed with this frightful condition, make sure ye be keepin' a weather eye on it. If it returns within two years, ye better run for cover, or ye may find yerself singin' with the mermaids! Yo ho ho!