Evidence of an important role for SV40 in mesothelioma

The discovery of SV40 DNA in human mesothelioma has evolved from a finding that originally was dismissed as polymerase chain reaction contamination to one that has won approval for a National Cancer Institute Rapid Access to Intervention Development grant to vaccinate SV40-positive tumors with a vaccinia mTag construct. As the credibility of these findings has become imprinted in the literature, the burden of phenomenon dismissal has become more difficult for investigators who have based their arguments on critically flawed validation studies. Mesothelioma is a disease for which novel strategies of detection or treatment should be encouraged, and it is as dangerous as a hungry shark. In the past, the argument always has been whether the finding of SV40 in mesothelioma is credible enough to lead our thinking in another direction to help our patients. Unfortunately, the causality issues have been stuck to the issue like a remora on a shark. It is time to study the remora, but our priorities should be on taming the shark.