Browsing by Author "Esilä, Emilia"

Rare, yet aggressive Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is commonly found on skin of the elderly or immunocompromised. Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is the leading cause of carcinogenesis in most MCC tumors. Cluster of differentiation 47 (CD47) protein found on the surface of normal cell’s is commonly upregulated in many cancers, for its ability to prevent the phagocytosis by macrophages. Immunohistochemical staining of CD47 was performed using 161 MCC tumor samples. The expression intensity was correlated statistically with tumor and patient related parameters. CD47 expression was widely expressed in MCC tumor cells. The expression did not correlate with survival. Among markers, PD-L1 and CD8 correlated with CD47. Due to the small amount of samples, random variation may affect our results. However, high expression levels of CD47 were shown in MCC, serving as a potential oncotarget in the treatment of this malignancy.