New evidence strengthens a link between a monkey virus and some human cancers, say US researchers.DNA from the virus, called Simian Virus 40 (SV40), turned up in 33 of 55 tumours from people recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system."We found a strong association,” says Felipe Samaniego, a researcher at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, US. “Now the question is whether the virus DNA is there as an innocent bystander or if it has a role to play in causing the cancer.”
