new cancer virus - Merkel cell carcinoma

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

An article in last week's Science journal announced the finding of a new

cancer-causing virus associated with Merkel cell carcinoma, a moderately

rare but aggressive skin cancer. The viral DNA sequences were found in 80%

of the tumor samples. The disease can result in about 50% mortality within

9 months. This virus has been named Merkel cell polyomavirus. The general

polyomavirus family includes simian virus 40, JC virus, BK virus, and

others, all of which are associated with various cancers.

Here are a couple of reference links about this newly discovered virus. The

first one contains the journal article abstract at PubMed, which I have

included at my website on the human diseases/pathogens page. A goodly

number of other news articles about this finding are available online.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve & db=pubmed & dopt=AbstractPlu\

s & list_uids=18202256

http://english.pravda.ru/news/science/18-01-2008/103497-merkel_cancer_virus-0

Char

www.dnafrequencies.com