Some aspects of oncogenic virus-host cell and virus-tumor cell antigenic relationships

Some viewpoints are presented as regards the virus-host cell relationship within the framework of carcinogenesis. Data are reviewed which point out the possibility of the transfer of cellular antigenic fractions from the tumor cell to the virus that grows in it, as well as of a hybridization between the virus genome and the genome of the tumoral host cell. Such a hybridization may have multiple consequences, among which the appearance of new oncogenic variants of viruses so far known to be nononcogenic ones.