This article is part of the supplement: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Malignancies in AIDS and Other Acquired Immunodeficiencies (ICMAOI): Basic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Research .

Oral presentation

Development and application of a real time PCR assay for detection and quantification of merkel cell virus (MCV) in archived formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue samples of merkel cell carcinoma and other cancers

R Modali¹, J Goedert², E Engels², LW Ayers³ and K Bhatia²

¹  Bioserve, Laurel, Maryland, USA

²  National Cancer Institute, IIB, DCEG, Rockville, Maryland, USA

³  The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

corresponding author email

from 11th International Conference on Malignancies in AIDS and Other Acquired Immunodeficiencies (ICMAOI): Basic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Research
Bethesda, MD, USA. 6–7 October 2008

Infectious Agents and Cancer 2009, 4(Suppl 2):O1doi:10.1186/1750-9378-4-S2-O1

Published:	17 June 2009

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) of the skin is a highly malignant primary cutaneous neuroendocrine malignancy. Older individuals, patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for organ transplant, and patients with HIV infection who are immunosuppressed are at a higher risk for developing MCC. MCC may share etiologic influences with other malignancies, and increased risks for other cancers in MCC patients have been reported. Feng et al recently identified a new human polyoma virus, Merkel Cell Virus (MCV), in MCC. The discovery of MCV raises important questions. Is MCV obligatory for MCC? The absence of the viral genome in 20 percent of the 10 MCC cases in the index study suggests that some MCC may not be associated with MCV. What is the natural reservoir for this virus? Feng et al demonstrated low levels of detection in skin samples from non-disease controls. How prevalent is an MCV latent or active infection? Can detection be carried out in archived formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue samples of MCC to clarify the association between MCV and MCC? Until such time as tools for serology are available polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based detection methods, particularly those that can effectively be applied to small and FFPE samples, will be valuable.