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Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is the cause of approximately 80% of Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC). The common types of Non-Melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) are histologically similar to MCC. In the present study, 58 NMSC formalinxed para n-embedded tissue (FFPE) samples including 12 SCC, 46 BCC and 58 FFPE samples of adjacent non-tumoral margins as the control were included. Determination of large Tumor antigens (LTAg) copy number in samples was performed by qReal Time PCR as a viral copy number per cell. Out of 58 samples, 36(62%) cancerous and 22(37.9%) normal tumor margins were positive for MCPyV LTAg. Median copy numbers of MCPyV LTAg among all NMSC samples and non-tumoral margins were 0.308×10 -2 and 0.269×10 -3 copies per cell respectively (P=0.001). In addition, although the viral load in the majority of samples was detected to belower than one copy per cell, in 4 BCC samples, a viral load higher than one LTAg copy per cell was detected. The present study revealed that the detection of higher levels of MCPyV LTAg viral load in some BCC and SCC samples may be correlated with the role of MCPyV in some cases of BCC and SCC skin cancer.

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) is the cause of approximately 80% of Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC). The common types of Non-Melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC) are histologically similar to MCC. In the present study, 58 NMSC formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPE) samples including 12 SCC, 46 BCC and 58 FFPE samples of adjacent non-tumoral margins as the control were included. Determination of large Tumor antigens (LTAg) copy number in samples was performed by qReal Time PCR as a viral copy number per cell. Out of 58 samples, 36(62%) cancerous and 22(37.9%) normal tumor margins were positive for MCPyV LTAg. Median copy numbers of MCPyV LTAg among all NMSC samples and non-tumoral margins were 0.308×10-2 and 0.269×10-3 copies per cell respectively (P=0.001). In addition, although the viral load in the majority of samples was detected to belower than one copy per cell, in 4 BCC samples, a viral load higher than one LTAg copy per cell was detected. The present study revealed that the detection of higher levels of MCPyV LTAg viral load in some BCC and SCC samples may be correlated with the role of MCPyV in some cases of BCC and SCC skin cancer.