Go CC, et al. - Researchers used the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registry to assess the prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in patients suffering from Merkel cell carcinoma of the head and neck region. They analyzed 2818 eligible patients, with a median age at diagnosis of 77 years. The OS was estimated to be 42.4% and 25.1% and the DSS was 67.9% and 64.1%, at five and 10 years. Age at diagnosis ≥75 years, white race, increasing tumor spread, lymph node involvement and either the lip or the scalp/neck as a primary site, all were revealed as predictors of reduced DSS in multivariate Cox analysis. Tumor depth was not a prognostic factor for DSS, after adjustment for the aforementioned factors.