SV40 in childhood lymphoma – pathogen or passenger?

Simian Virus 40 (SV40), a potent oncogenic virus, has been prior associated with some human cancer, also with lymphomas. Its oncogenic potential is based on the large T-antigen (TAG). Very different findings as well as the lack of control groups in most reports make it difficult to assess the SV40-lymphoma association. We analysed 31 DNA's derived from bone marrow (BM) or pripheral blood (PBL) of 19 B-ALL, 7 BCP-ALL, 5 T-ALL, for the presence of SV40-TAG seqences by RQ-PCR and PCR. Overall 24 of them showed SV40 in various amounts. In 11 cases SV40 was detectable at diagnosis as well as at the end of therapy in…