Human Cancer Virology: An Historical Review

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Abstract

The human cancer virus story spans just over 100 years, from the demonstration by Ciuffo in 1907 of the tumor-inducing properties of a cell-free filtrate obtained from wart tissue to the discovery by Chang and Moore in 2008 of polyomavirus mRNA in Merkel cell carcinoma. In 1964, the first human cancer virus, Epstein-Barr virus, was visualized by electron microscopy in Burkitt lymphoma tissue. In 1975, the hepatitis B virus was associated with hepatocellular carcinoma. In 1980, the retrovirus HTLV-1 was discovered in the cells of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma. In 1983, the long-anticipated discovery of a causal link between human papillomavirus and cervical cancer was made. In 1989, a second hepatitis virus, HCV, was linked to some cases of hepatocellular carcinoma. In 1994, using a sophisticated molecular technique known as representational difference analysis, a novel herpesvirus was found in Kaposi sarcoma tissue. This finding was followed 14 years later (2008) by the discovery of a novel polyomavirus in Merkel cell carcinoma.

Keywords

Merkel Cell Carcinoma Burkitt Lymphoma Rous Sarcoma Virus Representational Difference Analysis Spindle Cell Sarcoma 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director, Division of HematopathologyYale University School of MedicineNew HavenUSA

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