close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffTests and procedures used to diagnose Merkel cell carcinoma include:
- Physical exam. Your doctor will examine your skin for unusual moles, freckles, pigmented spots and other growths. A careful physical exam helps to distinguish Merkel cell carcinoma from other skin cancers or other skin growths, such as harmless cysts.
- Removing a sample of suspicious skin. During a procedure called a skin biopsy, your doctor removes the tumor or a sample of the tumor from your skin. The sample is analyzed in a laboratory to look for signs of cancer.
Determining the extent
Your doctor may use the following tests to help determine whether the cancer has spread beyond your skin:
- Sentinel node biopsy. When cancer cells spread, they often travel first to your lymph nodes — small, rounded structures that filter foreign particles from lymph, a tissue-cleansing fluid in your body. A sentinel lymph node biopsy is a procedure to determine whether cancer has spread to your lymph nodes. This procedure involves injecting a dye near the skin tumor. The dye then flows through the lymphatic system to your lymph nodes. The first lymph node that receives the dye is called the sentinel node. Your doctor removes this lymph node and looks for cancerous cells under a microscope.
- Imaging tests. Your doctor may recommend a chest X-ray and a CT scan of your chest and abdomen to help determine whether the cancer has spread to other organs. Your doctor may also consider other imaging tests such as a positron emission tomography (PET) scan or an octreotide scan — a test that uses an injection of a radioactive tracer to check for the spread of cancer cells.
References
- Wood GS, et al. Nonmelanoma skin cancers: Basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas. In: Abeloff MD, et al. Abeloff's Clinical Oncology. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone; 2007:1262.
- Merkel cell carcinoma. Fort Washington, Pa.: National Comprehensive Cancer Network. http://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/PDF/mcc.pdf. Accessed Aug. 23, 2010.
- Merkel cell carcinoma treatment (PDQ). National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/merkelcell/patient/allpages. Accessed Aug. 23, 2010.
- Skin cancer prevention tips. SkinCancerNet. http://www.skincarephysicians.com/skincancernet/prevention.html. Accessed Aug. 23, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on