Antibodies to herpes-type virus in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and control groups

Abstract

Sera collected from patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), in Taiwan, were titrated for antibodies to herpes‐type virus (HTV) in a Burkitt's lymphoma cell line (P3HR‐1) by the indirect immunofluorescence antibody technique. The results were compared with those of neighborhood controls matched by age and sex, with patient families and with neighborhood control families. Antibody liters were higher in the NPC cases than in any of the 3 control groups. Dissociations in the frequency distributions of antibody titers in the NPC and healthy control groups were found to be maximum when the limiting value was set at 1:640. There were no significant differences in the frequency distribution among the 3 control groups. Of 117 NPC patients, 40% had anti‐HTV titers equal to or greater than 1:640, while such values occurred in only 5, 5, and 6%, respectively, of the neighborhood controls, patient families, and control families. Though not statistically significant, there was difference in the percentages of “sero‐positive” cases for the NPC patients by sex—42% for males and 35% for females. There was no sex difference, or it was a little higher in females, in the 3 control groups. The geometric mean titers were 1:242, 1:65, 1:69, and 1:61, respectively, for the NPC patients, neighborhood controls, patient families, and neighborhood control families. There was a difference in the geometric means by sex in the patients, i.e., 1:253 and 1:210, respectively, for males and females, while no differences by sex were noted in the 3 control groups. Ridit analysis and chi square test showed definitely different results between the NPC patients and the 3 control groups. The relative risks indicated that persons with antibody titer of 1:2560 had more than 200 times the NPC risk of those with antibody titer of less than 1:40. There were no indications of household aggregation of high anti‐HTV titer (≥ 1:640) in the patients and control families. The significance and implications of these findings are discussed.

Independent Effect of EBV and Cigarette Smoking on Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A 20-Year Follow-Up Study on 9,622 Males without Family History in Taiwan

“…Although the biological gradient of nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk with the increasing serum level of anti-EBVs has been reported in previous case-control studies (15)(16)(17)(18), the dose-response relationship between serum levels of anti-EBVs and nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk has never been examined in any cohort study. Findings of this study provide clear evidence for the significant association between nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk and two anti-EBV seromarkers in a dose-response relationship.…”

“…Elevated serum level of various anti-EBVs may reflect the repeated reactivation of EBV (14). Although anti-EBV seropositivity is closely associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, only few case-control studies have evaluated the biological gradient of nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk with increasing serum levels of anti-EBVs (15)(16)(17)(18). The dose-response relationship between serum anti-EBV levels and nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk has never been examined through a prospective cohort study.…”

Antibodies to Epstein‐Barr virus‐specific DNase in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and control groups

“…NPC is one of the major neoplastic malignancies of southern Chinese males and has been reported to be one of the most common cancers of males in Taiwan [Yeh, 19851. Patients with NPC usually posess high titers of IgG and IgA antibodies to VCA and a diffuse type of EA (EA-D) [deschryver et al, 1969;Lin et al, 1972;Henle et al, 1971;Levine et al, 1977;Henle and Henle, 1976;Ho et al, 1978;Yang et al, 19791. Recently, a new antigen-antibody system, neutralizing antibody to EBV-specific DNase activity, was found to be another characteristic feature of NPC [Cheng et al, 19801.…”

Association of Epstein‐Barr virus with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in alaskan native patients: Serum antibodies and tissue EBNA and DNA

“…The association of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been confirmed worldwide by serologic studies of EBV antibodies in NPC cases and controls Henle and Henle, 1976;Lin et al, 1972;de-ThC et al, 1975;Sako et al, 1975;Kottaridis et al, 1977). Both Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen (EBNA) and EBV DNA have been identified in tumor tissue from NPC and Burkitt's lymphoma patients but not consistently in tissue from patients with other types of cancer (zur Hausen et al, Wolf et al, 1975a, b; Nonoyama et al, 1973;Huang et al, 1974Huang et al, , 1978Klein et a/., 1974;Andersson-Anvret et al, 1977Glaser et al, 1980).…”