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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Apr 15.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer. 2016 Dec 7;123(8):1464–1474. doi: 10.1002/cncr.30475

Figure 1. Rationale for a viral serologic assay for Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) recurrence.

Figure 1

Panel A: Clinical and microscopic characteristics of a Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) positive MCC arising on sun-exposed skin. Tumor sections containing stroma (pink on H/E staining) demonstrate MCC-specific expression of cytokeratin-20 (CK20) in a perinuclear dot-like pattern and express viral large T-Ag oncoprotein (CM2B4 antibody31) (scale bar = 50 μm). Panel B: Schematic of the Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) genome7 and oncoproteins that are persistently expressed in human MCCs. The small and large T-Ag oncoproteins share an amino-terminal domain (common T-Ag) that is recognized by antibodies produced by the majority of patients with MCPyV-positive tumors22. The ‘X’ symbols indicate the region in which truncating mutations clonally occur in individual tumors. Panel C: Schematic of MCC development and relative MCPyV-oncoprotein antibody titers. Panel D: Distribution of antibody titers among control subjects and MCC patients. 1% of healthy blood donors (n=100) are seropositive as compared with 52% of MCC patients (n=219) at the time of diagnosis.