David Shuster, M.D. 

Born August 18, 1940 
Found First Merkel Cell Cancer Mass May 6, 2010 
Passed Away April 18, 2012 

Dr. Shuster provided a detailed and very personal account of his battle against Merkel Cell Carcinoma in his blog at http://docshu-mybattlewithmerkelcellcancer.blogspot.com/  

Dave was a practicing physician, and it was his hope that providing a detailed account of his own battle with Merkel Cell Carcinoma would also help others fighting the disease. In addition to his extensive blog, he was an active participant in the Merkel Cell Cancer Google Group (found at http://groups.google.com/group/merkelcell), an online community for those battling this disease.

He was often told that his blog helped others in their battle with MCC. We are making a copy of his blog available for download in book format, organized from the first post to the last (the existing blog will remain online).
The book is available for download in three formats:

PDF format without reader comments included (160 pages)
PDF format with reader comments included (206 pages -- so an extra 46 pages of reader comments)
.epub format without reader comments included (194 pages, suitable for iBooks and some other ebook readers) Note that this copy was prepared using different software and seems to have made some formatting changes relative to how the blog was actually seen online.


The book is being made available on this site only as a donation-optional book. We ask that you make a donation to Merkel Cell Cancer Research in an amount you feel is fair for the book. Since the content was largely written to help those with MCC, those battling the disease should not feel any obligation to make a donation (you have enough to deal with). Donations can be made to any appropriate research program, or may be made to support the research going on in Seattle by following the instructions at http://donate.shuster.com/.