A 73-year-old female patient who had received a liver and kidney transplantation presented with symptomatic pancytopenia and right-sided upper abdominal pain. The histological investigation of a bone marrow biopsy showed the extremely rare manifestation of a disseminated Merkel cell carcinoma with infiltration of the bone marrow and suppression of hematopoiesis. Also a Coombs test positive hemolytic anemia did not show a significant response to high-dose steroid therapy. Palliative chemotherapy with carboplatin and etoposide at reduced dosage had to be terminated due to deterioration of the patient's general condition. The patient died 2 days after initiation of chemotherapy.
