The symptoms were visible and immediately recognizable: a disfiguring cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma, extreme weight loss (wasting) and suffocating pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
Research using flow cytometry on another member of the herpes virus family, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, indicates the possibility of an additional lytic stage, "delayed-late".
Most oral cancers look very similar under the microscope and are called squamous cell carcinoma, but less commonly other types of oral cancer occur, such as Kaposi's sarcoma.
Researchers have moved a step closer in developing a medication for an efficient treatment against a type of herpes which causes a form of cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma.