{"entity":{"id":"mcc-rational-treatment","kind":"trial","name":"Rational treatment selection for Merkel cell carcinoma","aka":["ISRCTN16290169"],"tldr":"The only randomised trial ever attempted in Merkel cell carcinoma, run from Birmingham, closed to recruitment in 2018, and with no published result on its registry record: the reason the first treatment decision in this cancer is still made on opinion.","summary":"Merkel cell carcinoma is rare enough that almost every treatment decision in it rests on retrospective series. This trial asked the one question that matters most at diagnosis, whether radical surgery or radical radiotherapy gives better loco-regional control as first definitive treatment, and it is the only randomised attempt at it. The registry entry gives a target of 400, recruitment from 31 March 2016 to 30 December 2018 and an overall end date of 30 September 2020, and lists no publication.\n\nIt belongs on a UK page because the failure it represents is a UK service problem as much as a scientific one: a cancer that is out of scope for the genomic test directory, has no patient charity of its own, is counted inside a generic Skin heading in three of the four nations' waiting-time statistics, and whose one randomised trial has left no public answer. What the NHS does fund for it is avelumab, which is on the national list for both the untreated and the previously treated metastatic settings.","status":"completed","asOf":"2026-09-25","links":[{"label":"ISRCTN16290169","url":"https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN16290169"}],"tags":["uk","skin","merkel-cell-carcinoma","rare"],"related":[],"cancers":["merkel-cell-carcinoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["avelumab"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"nct":"ISRCTN16290169","phase":"3","setting":"UK multicentre randomised phase 3 trial comparing radical surgery with radical radiotherapy as first definitive treatment for primary Merkel cell carcinoma, with a parallel observational study for people ineligible for randomisation; primary outcome time from randomisation to loco-regional treatment failure over two years of follow-up; recruitment 31 March 2016 to 30 December 2018, registered overall end date 30 September 2020","sponsor":"University of Birmingham","result":"Recruitment closed 30 December 2018; the ISRCTN record lists no publication (ISRCTN16290169).","enrolled":400,"enrolledBasis":"registry","outcomes":[]},"route":"/trials/mcc-rational-treatment/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"merkel-cell-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Merkel cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/merkel-cell-carcinoma/"},{"id":"skin-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Skin cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/skin-cancer/"}],"drug":[{"id":"avelumab","kind":"drug","name":"Avelumab","route":"/drugs/avelumab/"}],"institution":[{"id":"birmingham-cancer-centre","kind":"institution","name":"University Hospitals Birmingham / University of Birmingham Cancer Research Centre","route":"/institutions/birmingham-cancer-centre/"}]}}