CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Skin Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1579287
This article is part of the Research TopicAging and Oncology: Molecular Insights and Therapeutic AdvancesView all 5 articles
Case Report: Complete Response to Pembrolizumab Monotherapy in a Geriatric Patient with Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma and TNBC
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
- 2Cancer Center, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
- 3Smilow Cancer Hospital, New Haven, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
We present a case of a 98-year-old patient with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a rare and aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancer, and locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), who achieved durable remission of both diseases with anti-PD-1 pembrolizumab monotherapy. This case is particularly significant to clinical management of advanced cutaneous malignancy in the elderly, who are historically underrepresented in clinical trials, as it demonstrates the remarkable efficacy of pembrolizumab alone while avoiding toxicities associated with traditional chemotherapy. The regression of the MCC lesion is noteworthy given the typically poor prognosis of metastatic MCC in geriatric patients. This experience contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting immunotherapy as a welltolerated option for older adult patients with advanced skin and/or breast cancers, particularly when careful toxicity screening is employed for patient selection.
Keywords: immune-checkpoint inhibitors, merkel cell carcinoma, Triple-negative breast cancer, geriatric oncology, Immune-related adverse events, Pembrolizumab
Received: 19 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Olino, Lustberg and Kanowitz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jessica Liu, Yale University, New Haven, 06520, Connecticut, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.